The imbrication of gender and nationality where the pay gap is concerned : the case in Malta

Abstract

This chapter uses postcolonial and intersectional theory to explore how the legacies of the past perpetuate institutionalized racism and sexism and result in neocolonial forms of racism in the particular context of Malta. By looking at Malta’s positionality within the European Union (EU), it explores the interconnection between North and South in Europe to delineate how they are mutually constitutive. The first part of the chapter explains that although Malta is in the Global North, its size and geopolitical location locate it at the periphery. Southern European countries are considered to form part of the Global North, yet in reality they are ‘subordinated in economic, political and cultural terms’ (De Sousa Santos 2016: 17). Malta’s economy is booming, forcing employers to import foreign workers and facilitate the employment and retention of Maltese women. The second part of this chapter analyzes the intersecting relationship between gender and nationality, in view of the EU’s differentiation between North and South, West and East, and also between EU and non-EU. This relationship is explored by examining how workers differentiated on the basis of gender intersecting with their regional origin are located within the Maltese labour market, and how this impacts on their average wages. This chapter illustrates how small South European countries like Malta are subordinated in the EU. This subordinate position in conjunction with heteropatriarchal, postcolonial and neocolonizing practices is imbibed by employers and policymakers to legitimize and justify the maldistribution of income within Malta. [Excerpt from the Introduction]