Interests Under Construction: Views on Migration from the European Union’s Southern External Border
| Author | Mark McAdam,Laura Otto |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032321720966464 |
| Published date | 01 May 2022 |
| Date | 01 May 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0032321720966464
Political Studies
2022, Vol. 70(2) 348 –366
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/0032321720966464
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Interests Under Construction:
Views on Migration from the
European Union’s Southern
External Border
Mark McAdam1,2 and Laura Otto3
Abstract
What do people think about unauthorised migrants reaching their shores? This article examines
ethnographically what and how Maltese citizens think about recent migrant arrivals from northern
Africa. This case study adds to research on public opinion formation in migrant-receiving societies
in the European Union, offering perspectives from a small state tasked with enforcing the
European Union’s external border in which migration is viewed critically. Embedding our research
within constructivist institutionalism – which assumes that self-interest is not pre-determined but
rather constructed – we are the first authors to take up Colin Hay’s call for ethnographic analysis
in this field. We suggest that criticism of migration to Malta was grounded in fears and beliefs
associated with unorderliness of migration management, perceived unfairness of EU requirements,
uncertainty of the future, and a loss of control of being able to determine one’s own cultural
identity.
Keywords
migration, European Union, ethnography, ideas and institutions, constructivist institutionalism
Accepted: 8 September 2020
Introduction
In recent years, unauthorised migration1 towards the European Union (EU) has become
a politically contentious topic. Its present societal and academic relevance is greater than
ever (Heath et al., 2020: 475), as anti-migrant sentiments are on the rise throughout EU,
1 Department of Contextual Economics and Economic Education, School of Economic Disciplines, University
of Siegen, Siegen, Germany
2
Department of International Political Economy, Faculty of Management & Economics, Witten/Herdecke
University, Witten, Germany
3 Institute for Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am
Main, Germany
Corresponding author:
Mark McAdam, Department of Contextual Economics and Economic Education, School of Economic
Disciplines, University of Siegen, 57072 Siegen, Germany.
Emails: mark.mcadam@uni-wh.de; mark.mcadam@uni-siegen.de
966464PSX0010.1177/0032321720966464Political StudiesMcAdam and Otto
research-article2020
Article
McAdam and Otto 349
migrant arrivals transform former emigration to immigration countries, and ensuing
political repercussions are widespread. Citizens and the public, however, vary in their
views on migration (Meuleman et al., 2009), making research on their attitudes towards
migrants vital. Where do the ideas which inform views on migration come from? Which
dynamics are important in shaping beliefs about ‘strangers’? And how do actors under-
stand their own interests on the issue of unauthorised migration? Our article contributes
to scholarship on public opinion in societies receiving migrants by focusing our case
study on a small state: Malta. We examine this phenomenon by studying ethnographi-
cally how people on the ground developed their perspectives, especially on the arrival of
unauthorised migrants.
Since research on public opinion entails the examination of collectively held ideas and
beliefs, it is also closely linked to ideational analysis, which studies the impact ideas have
on political outcomes. Constructivist institutionalism (CI), in particular, places an empha-
sis on the significance of ideas in the formulation of agents’ interests, highlighting the role
perception plays in this process. CI’s foremost proponent, Colin Hay (2011), issued a call
to employ ethnographic methods to study interest construction. We embed our analysis
herein and are the first authors to take Hay up on his call; our case study thus demon-
strates the process by which ‘public sentiments’ (Campbell, 2004) emerged in response to
migration to Malta.
We proceed as follows: First, we provide an overview of migration to Malta, its his-
torical and contemporary developments and how this relates to larger European dynam-
ics. Second, we outline the development of institutionalist analysis as it relates to Hay’s
(2011) call, further cementing the value of ethnographically oriented approaches for ideas
research. Third, we focus on the beliefs and ideas expressed by actors in a case study on
Malta with whom we conducted fieldwork between 2013 and 2018. Fourth, we analyse
the perception of actors’ interests and how these came about. We specifically emphasise
– in line with CI – that these interests are contingent and adventitious. Fifth, we conclude
in outlining a brief agenda for future ethnographic research within CI.
Setting the Scene: Migration to Malta and the European
Union
One of the most significant changes the Maltese island-state has undergone following
accession to the EU in 2004 concerned the movement of people to the island. Since 2002,
more than 100,000 persons have moved to the EU’s smallest member state of whom
roughly 18,000 were unauthorised migrants typically arriving by boat from Libya who
applied for asylum. Migration to Malta has been viewed controversially, especially con-
sidering that its population made up only 440,971 persons in January 2020. Yet scepti-
cism towards unauthorised migrants has been juxtaposed against a welcoming attitude
that coincides with a booming tourism industry. The number of annual tourists has more
than doubled in only 9 years (Galea, 2019), playing a key role in the country’s economic
development and attracting workforce from abroad. Having become an EU member and
a signatory to the Schengen Agreement, however, has an impact on all of the aforemen-
tioned groups: the EU’s guarantee of the free movement of persons as one of the Four
Freedoms has implied that economic migrants with EU citizenship are allowed to work
lawfully in Malta; bureaucratic entry processes for EU tourists have diminished; and
through its accession, Malta has become part of the external European border and is thus
subject to EU law on migration management. Malta’s government also has to abide by the
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