The Maltese entrepreneurial networks from the seventeenth century onwards : a review of the work done so far

Abstract

Migration has been a feature of human existence since the very dawn of history. It has taken various forms and its intensity has varied over time. This century promises to be one of considerable population movements as a consequence of demographic changes presently underway. As populations in the ‘developed’ world plummet it is calculated that countries like Germany, for example, will have to import a million migrants of working age per year by the year 2020, as their own populations become older (The Economist 1 November 2001 Survey: The Next Society). But the clamour for workers from the business sector is often drowned by the opposition to migrants from other sections of society.