The Miskin and the big-man : surviving as a refugee in Malta

Abstract

Malta passed the Refugees Act in July 2000. Refugees and aid agencies alike had long awaited this law in the hope that it would enable refugees in this country to take more responsibility for their own lives. This paper will make an ethnographic investigation of the situation prevailing in Malta prior to the enactment of this law, discussing some of the issues it was meant to address. We will examine the categories and assumptions of the institutional framework that lay behind the distribution of charity to refugees. The paper will outline the paths and strategies that made particular resources available to refugees. Without legal structures to guarantee refugees their livelihood, they were pushed into relations more akin to traditional networks of patronage. The Government's decision to permit refugees access to particular resources, such as work, has important implications for the ability of refugees to engage with Maltese society as complete social beings.