'For her protection and benefit': the regulation of marriage-related migration to the UK

Carver, Natasha 2016. 'For her protection and benefit': the regulation of marriage-related migration to the UK. Ethnic and Racial Studies 39 (15) , pp. 2758-2776. 10.1080/01419870.2016.1171369

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Abstract

This paper argues that a two-tier system has evolved dividing intra-UK/EU marriages from extra-UK/EU marriages. For the former, marriage is a contract between two individuals overseen by a facilitating state. For the latter, marriage has become more of a legal status defined and controlled by an intrusive and obstructive state. I argue that this divergence in legislating regulation is steeped in an ethnicized imagining of ‘Britishness’ whereby the more noticeably ‘other’ migrants (by skin colour or religion) are perceived as a threat to the national character. The conceptualization of women as legally ‘disabled’ citizens (1870 Naturalisation Act) for whom a state must act as responsible patriarch, is a fundamental part of this imagining of the nation. The paper therefore examines the social (gendered and ethnicized) assumptions and political aims embedded within the legislation.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Law
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis (Routledge): SSH Titles
ISSN:	0141-9870
Funders:	ESRC
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	22 March 2018
Date of Acceptance:	10 March 2015
Last Modified:	26 Nov 2020 07:23
URI:	http://orca.cf.ac.uk/id/eprint/108262

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