Last December, the Eurofor conference in Malta was interesting. A variety of papers on different subjects were presented. This gave me a good chance to hear about areas of research in migration studies which are not directly linked to mine, moreover, I had the opportunity to meet a few friends and other researchers.
Of particular importance to me the two panels on Malta and a trip to the Marsa Open Centre where successful refuge claimants and people with humanitarian protection are accommodated upon release from detention.
Terry Gosden’s presentation, during one of the panels on Malta, and the following debate gave us a first introduction to the issue. He explained what the centre is, how it works, who the residents are and what they do.

He talked about the severe psychological conditions in which people arrive at the centre, traumatised by a conflict in the country of origin, a terrible journey to arrive to Malta and the previous experience in the close detention centres. Then he focused on the way in which he manages the centre and tries to motivate people to regain their agency through self and group empowerment. He stressed the point that they “are not a charity!�, the centre provides people with accommodation and other basic needs, and with guidance for self-organisation encouraging them to pursue certain initiatives as setting up “ethnic restaurants� for residents or buying a TV, or organising prayer groups, etc.

The debate following Gosden’s presentation was characterised by positive comments from some of the Maltese attendees who knew already about the centre and by others who expressed curiosity about the model and its possible application elsewhere in Europe. However, Gosden answered to these comments and questions stressing how far the centre he runs is from what it would like it to be and what the residents, as human beings, deserve. So I was left with even more curiosity about the centre and the way it operates that was clarified when I finally visited it few days later.

I will write about this in the next post. Here I simply want to add a note on the internal debate among researchers about whether visiting the centre was actually appropriate. Some people felt the experience would have felt like visiting a showcase of “human despair� and preferred not to come. Others thought it was important to see first hand what the centre is like and considered that our visit could have been also an interesting chance for the residents to meet other people, talk and pass the time. The most surprising thing for me was the discovery that for some colleagues this was the first time they ever visited a centre where immigrants live and had the chance to talk to so many of them. Too much work behind the desk I guess! Time to make time for some valuable fieldwork…..