Visions of Europe among Somali Women in Malta

Camille Schmoll (1, 2) , Anna Spiteri (3) , Maurice Saïd (3)

1 GC (UMR_8504) - Géographie-cités
2 LOUEST - Laboratoire des organisations urbaines : espaces sociétés, temporalités
3 IRMCo

This EuroBroadMap working paper, issued from the final report of the work package 3 (migrants and borders), focuses on Somali women in Malta. Malta is a small island state with the highest population density in Europe. Traditionally a country of emigration, the island has experienced a new immigration flow in the last decade. The research was based on semistructured interviews and observations undertaken with Somali women in May and October 2010. Somali women vision of Europe is ambivalent: Europe is both seen as a space of opportunity where one can get protection and legal capital for the whole family and a space where one experiences racism, detention as well as several institutional obstacles. This vision is highly connected to institutional factors that determine whether they should go into detention or not, their possibility to get protection, to circulate within the EU space as well as to reunify with their family. Moreover, the knowledge, the experience and the image of Europe is constructed alongside the trajectories. This construction of Europe is connected to a process of redefinition of one's own identity and projects as well as a negotiation of social boundaries.

Mots clés: Malta; Somali women; Asylum seekers; borders and boundaries; gender; detention; racism; family

Domaines: Géographie; Anthropologie sociale et ethnologie

Camille Schmoll, Anna Spiteri, Maurice Saïd. Visions of Europe among Somali Women in Malta. 2011. ⟨halshs-00648758⟩