Immigration, rituals and transitoriness in the Mediterranean island of Malta

Abstract

In contemporary Malta, sub-Saharan ‘boat’ immigrants are imagined and represented as transients and sojourners rather than as settlers. The dynamics of these processes include a set of stylised rituals and spectacles of departure and arrival, as well as containment practices linked to sojourn. The former are associated with the notion of islandness and its corollary, borders; the latter may be thought of as a kind of transformation of domestic space into a vulnerable and partially invisible one. The upshot is that, irrespective of its empirical ‘truth’ value, transience is a product actively and agentively produced by the state and other actors in response to a perceived threat from immigration.