Editing Demographics of Malta (section)

=== Emigration ===
[[File:Malta -mix- 2019 by-RaBoe 067.jpg|thumb|Child Migrants' Memorial at the [[Valletta Waterfront]], commemorating the 310 Maltese child migrants who travelled to Australia between 1950 and 1965.]]
{{main|Emigration from Malta}}

Malta has long been a country of emigration, with big Maltese communities in English-speaking countries abroad.
Mass emigration picked up in the 19th century, reaching its peak in the decades after World War II.

In the nineteenth century, most migration from Malta was to [[North Africa]] and the [[Middle East]] (particularly [[Algeria]], [[Tunisia]] and [[Egypt]]), although rates of [[Repatriation|return migration]] to Malta were high.<ref name="Jones">{{cite journal|title=Modern emigration from Malta|first=Huw R.|last=Jones|year=1973|journal=Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers|volume=60|issue=60|pages=101–119|doi=10.2307/621508|jstor=621508}}</ref> Nonetheless, Maltese communities formed in these regions. By 1900, for example, British consular estimates suggest that there were 15,326 Maltese in [[Tunisia]].<ref name="Attard">{{cite book|title=The Great Exodus (1918–1939)|first=Lawrence E.|last=Attard|year=1989|location=Malta|publisher=Publishers Enterprises Group|url=http://www.maltamigration.com/history/exodus/chapter3-4.shtml?s=4E1675C4-7F000001-7DA803104013-6891|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110406130103/http://www.maltamigration.com/history/exodus/chapter3-4.shtml?s=4E1675C4-7F000001-7DA803104013-6891|archive-date=6 April 2011}}</ref>
There is little trace left of the Maltese communities in North Africa, most of them having been displaced, after the rise of independence movements, to places like [[Marseille]], the United Kingdom or Australia.

After World War II, Malta's Emigration Department would assist emigrants with the cost of their travel. Between 1948 and 1967, 30 per cent of the population emigrated.<ref name=Jones/> Between 1946 and the late 1970s, over 140,000 people left Malta on the assisted passage scheme, with 57.6 per cent migrating to Australia, 22 per cent to the UK, 13 per cent to Canada and 7 per cent to the United States.<ref name="King">{{cite journal|title=The Maltese migration cycle: An archival survey|first=Russell|last=King|year=1979|journal=Area|volume=11|issue=3|pages=245–249|jstor=20001477}}</ref> (See also [[Maltese Australians]]; [[Maltese people in the United Kingdom]])

46,998 Maltese-born residents were recorded by the 2001 [[Census in Australia|Australian Census]], 30,178 by the [[2001 UK Census]], 9,525 by the [[Canada 2001 Census|2001 Canadian Census]] and 9,080 by the [[2000 United States Census]].<ref name="OECD">{{cite web|url=http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/18/23/34792376.xls |title=Country-of-birth database |publisher=[[Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development]] |access-date=3 August 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090617032129/http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/18/23/34792376.xls |archive-date=17 June 2009 }}</ref>

Emigration dropped dramatically after the mid-1970s and has since ceased to be a social phenomenon of significance. However, since Malta joined the [[European Union|EU]] in 2004 [[expatriate]] communities emerged in a number of European countries particularly in Belgium and Luxembourg. At the same time, Malta is becoming more and more attractive for communities of immigrants, both from Western and Northern Europe (Italians, British) and from Eastern Europe (Serbians).