Transnational care networks of ‘third country national’ women working in Malta

Abstract

Third-country national (TCN) women working in Malta face a number of barriers, as well as opportunities. Our paper is based on qualitative findings drawn from 19 in-depth interviews with women from five South Asian countries (India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Bangladesh). Our research questions were aimed at illuminating their lived working experience as women, and at times as mothers in Malta, intersectionally taking socio-economic circumstances and immigration status into account. Our article expands on a cluster of themes that emerged as prominent across the interviews, centring on key concerns around care, including family, motherhood and transnational care. Respondents referred to their dual roles as providers and receivers of care and support locally and/or transnationally, with their role as providers of care emerging as dominant. Their work in Malta was central, being sometimes a barrier to, sometimes an enabler of, care networks. For example, a number of respondents brought up the impact that working in Malta has on their family life, often leading to separation from their families who remained in their country of origin. Several respondents also worked in care-giving jobs, which tend to be in lower-paid sectors, and which therefore made income-dependent family reunification less likely. Most of them were also sending remittances back to family members in the country of origin. We identify areas for improvement in the situation of TCN workers in Malta, in particular the need to enhance their quality of family life and their access to support structures.