Paper short abstract:

International oligarchs seeking Maltese passports have occupied ruined imperial infrastructures and revived economies and expectations established during British rule. Requiring local compliance, their presence unsettles the colonial/post-colonial dichotomy on which Maltese historiography relies.

Paper long abstract:

In 2019, a prominent Maltese human-rights NGO urged compatriots direct their anger not at harmless sub-Saharan migrants, but at international oligarchs, whose quest for Maltese (and thus EU) passports required them to buy expensive apartments in newly-constructed gated-communities. The legal and construction industries servicing these elites provided newfound wealth for Malta’s landowners. The NGO feared, however, that they were jeopardising Malta’s reputation and making the island inaccessible and inhospitable to upcoming generations. These cosmopolitan elites were thus likened to “White Walkers” from ‘Game of Thrones’; otherworldly necromancers whose presence zombifies humans and kills the land.

“White walkers” are perceived as a disruptive unprecedented product of late capitalism. This paper instead argues they have snugly occupied ruined imperial infrastructures and re-activated dormant colonial relations and expectations established during British rule. Their presence unsettles the dichotomies (coloniser/colonised; colonial/post-colonial) on which Maltese historiography and conceptions of sovereignty are built. In Malta, British authorities differentiated between “civil” and “military” affairs. All military business took placed in fortified enclaves, barred to the natives. Following “independence”, these enclaves fell into ruin, being unsuitable for industrial or residential development. “Heterotopias” par excellence, they now house global elites, whose ivory towers mushroom atop their foundations.

The indifference of the Maltese to re-enclavisation (and the sale of passports) is dismissed by activists, scholars, and European politicians as a sign of Malta’s failure to fulfil its post-colonial responsibilities. Unwritten household histories, however, suggest acute awareness that survival in a “fragmented ecosystem” requires flirtation and compliance with dangerous forces from oversees.