The political lives of Maltese migrants in New York from the perspective of the Maltese centre in Astoria

Abstract

This dissertation looks at the political lives of Maltese migrants and their descendants in New York, specifically from the perspective of a small community based Maltese centre in Astoria in the borough of Queens. It targets various aspects that connect the Maltese diaspora in New York to Malta, including the role of Maltese politics in the projection of their identity. A segment of the Maltese diaspora in New York, primarily the older first generation, meets up at the Maltese Centre in New York; thus, this tentative study explores the relevance of this centre to their political lives. It also identifies the role of emotions and nostalgia towards the homeland in their political lives. Specifically, this dissertation delves into the political allegiances of the Maltese diaspora in New York towards US politics and whether their political loyalties with respect to Maltese politics are carried over or are redefined in the diaspora. Furthermore, this study tries to analyse the impact of new communication technologies on these migrants’ political lives and whether these migrants fund political parties in Malta and the US. In-depth interviews were conducted with 11 members of the Maltese diaspora in New York, selected by snowball sampling. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all the interviews had to be done online. The interviews were semi-structured, although field questions based on the research questions were put to the interviewees where appropriate. The interviews were mostly conducted in the run-up of the 2020 US presidential election, which featured in most of them. This work identifies the Maltese Centre in the borough of Queens as a micro-simulation of home. Nostalgia towards the homeland plays a crucial role in the migrants’ political lives. For many of the Maltese migrants in New York, especially the older generation, political allegiance is part of their family identity. The migrants’ political allegiance towards US politics depends on intersecting influences between their background in Malta and their social class in the United States. It also proved to be much more complex than it appeared. The results also indicate that the political lives of migrants are greatly enabled by information technology, as it allows them to follow Maltese news and discussion programmes in real time.