Maltese May Reapply For Dual Citizenship
June 29, 2007
‘Aussie or a wog, you can’t be both’: new citizenship laws say you can
Sandra Desira left Australia with her family when she was eight. Her parents had migrated to Melbourne but changed their minds after they missed their home in Malta. Their daughter grew up in Malta missing Melbourne. One day, she thought, perhaps she would return.
However, in 1994, just before Ms Desira’s 19th birthday, the Maltese government instructed her employer to sack her unless she renounced her Australian citizenship. Until then she had been Australian by birth and Maltese by descent. But the Maltese law barred adults from holding dual citizenship. If she wanted to keep her job, she could be only Maltese.
