Valued, problematised, ignored: glimpses into entanglements of emplaced mobilities in a Maltese town

This article examines the entanglements of mobility in a small town in Malta, exploring how different forms of human movement shape and are shaped by local dynamics. Drawing on fieldwork and interviews, it reveals the complex ways in which mobilities are discursively constructed, with a particular focus on how certain mobile groups are either valued, problematised, or ignored, reflecting processes of othering and ascriptions of (un)deservingness. Building on reflexive migration studies, the article applies an “entangled mobilities” lens, a place-based approach for studying different types of mobility. This approach seeks to avoid the unreflected use of nation-state categories in the study of people’s movement, addressing critiques from various scholars that migration studies reproduce a nation-state logic. I demonstrate how local narratives reflect varying attitudes toward the mobility of different groups: some are embraced for economic gain, while others are problematised, and still others are ignored.