In the 1950s, the Malta Catholic Action founded the Malta Emigrants Commission to assist the Maltese who were seeking a new life away from our shores in other countries. The Maltese Migrants Centre operated from Palazzo Caraffa from 1963. Later, this work was integrated into the structures of the Archdiocese of Malta.
In 1971, Dar l-Emigrant was inaugurated. A year later, Malta accepted her first refugees upon the request of the UNHCR: 362 persons from Uganda. In 1987, the Commission became an official Operational Partner of the UNHCR.
Along the years the Commission assisted Maltese people who emigrated to settle and built their families and futures in migrant countries like the North of Africa, Australia, Canada, the UK and the United States.
Nowadays the Commission is still a point of reference for those who might choose to return to retire in Malta, or who visit with their children and grandchildren to reconnect with their cultural roots. The Commission keeps contacts with various Maltese cultural organisations in the various countries to promote the distinctiveness of “Maltese culture” everywhere.
For more information, contact us on [email protected].
The Commission also has a depository of archives with records of over 30,000 Maltese emigrants dating back to the 1950s and records of immigrants to Malta since 1993. Archives are kept according to the GDPR Regulations and may be consulted for research purposes.
The Commission aims to support cultural initiatives and research looking at migration narratives and the story migrants have to tell themselves.
To ask for an appointment, contact us on [email protected].