MiSoC researcher Professor Renee Luthra, together with Family Law Lecturer Edit Frenyo, have begun a cross-disciplinary project that aims to understand and highlight the unique challenges facing immigrant families going through parental separation.
Rationale
Families with immigrant parents are increasingly common: one in three children born in the UK in 2023 had at least one foreign born parent. Separation and divorce proceedings involving immigrant parents therefore are on the rise and will only become more common in the future.
There is a large amount of research on parental separation and care for children, but much less is known about how separation, child contact and child maintenance are negotiated in families with immigrant parents.
More research is needed to understand the special needs of families with foreign born parents. We are interested in the way that immigrant ties to their home country, immigration status, and international mobility plans are taken into account when child maintenance and contact is decided.
The information we obtain from interviews with separating parents, lawyers, mediators, and third sector organisations will be used to help raise awareness of issues that affect an increasing number of families in the UK, and to help devise better policy to address their concerns.
Purpose and Objectives
The purpose of this study is to provide an answer to the research question: “How is child contact and maintenance negotiated by separating parents in families where at least one parent immigrated to the UK as an adult (hereafter: “immigrant families”)?”
We hypothesise that foreignness -which we conceive as a spectrum ranging from low to high levels of formal and informal skills, knowledge and support in the UK context[1] – will intersect with other determinants of inequality (gender, socioeconomic status, previous caregiving role) in the child contact and maintenance negotiation process.
The study has the following objectives:
- To understand the intersection of immigrant status with gender, socioeconomic status, and previous caregiving roles in the negotiation dynamics that determine child contact and maintenance during and after separation;
- To examine the relationship between these intersecting statuses and inequalities in access to justice: in mediation, access to legal support, and in family courts;
- To document the influence of separation and post-separation childcare processes on the aspirations, plans and future mobilities of parents and children in immigrant families;
- To understand how Immigration and Family Law intersect to shape childcare and maintenance negotiation and enactment in separated immigrant families;
- To provide new evidence on how Family Law can accommodate the special needs of immigrant families.
Research Methods
We recruit participants through personal networks, via our connections with third sector organisations and law clinics supporting immigrant families, and on online forums. We secured ethical approval for the study at the University of Essex in May 2023. In our pilot study this summer, we were able to achieve 12 parent and two lawyer interviews via online advertising, snowball sampling, and offering a £40 Amazon voucher.
Interview participants will be:
- At least 60 separating / separated parents in immigrant families. We aim to achieve a mixture of parents in former partnerships where both parents are immigrants from the same country, where both parents are immigrants from two different countries, and where one parent is UK born and one parent is an immigrant. Our pilot has revealed that a high number of interviews is required given the great diversity in experience by socioeconomic status, recency of immigration and migration status, and gender.
- At least 6 family lawyers and mediators: we aim to achieve expert interviews with family lawyers and mediators with experience working with immigrant families.
- At least 4 caseworkers from third sector organisations: we have confirmed collaboration with the Essex Law Clinic and Reunite Families UK and are in discussion with Gingerbread, Migrant Children’s Project, and the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants.
Interviews last between 50 and 90 minutes and are conducted at a place and time convenient to the respondent, either face to face, online via Zoom or similar, or over the telephone.
All interviews are audio-recorded and then professionally transcribed and anonymised. Anonymised transcripts will be used for scientific publications, policy reports, and for communications to the general public.
Anonymised transcripts will be archived at the UKDS.
Expected Outputs
We expect this project to result in a variety of outputs:
- Peer-reviewed publications: at least one publication each in leading Sociology or Law journals.
- A manuscript for publication with an academic press such as Oxford University Press.
- Policy publications: briefings of our findings for the Home Office, Ministry of Justice, and for charities that work with separated parents such as Gingerbread
- Information Brochures for free download for immigrant parents who are separating
[1]This can be operationalised in a variety of ways; for instance, native English proficiency to no English proficiency, foreign born v UK born, permanent resident / citizen v temporary visa holder, from developed v less developed sending country)