In April 2013, the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) cut large areas from legal aid, meaning fewer people are eligible for legal advice. The fees paid to Legal Aid providers have also fallen far behind with inflation. The result is an extreme shortage of legal advice – and this shortage hits immigrants and their families especially hard.
Our evidence
We interview 25 third sector professionals and family and immigration solicitors who support immigrant families undergoing parental separation. We also interview 50 parents in immigrant families that have separated or are currently undergoing parental separation in England. We define immigrant families as biological parents and their children under the age of 16, where at least one parent immigrated to the UK as an adult.
Our study is among the first to provide unique insights into how the migration experience impacts access to resources during parental separation, including public, private, financial and logistic support.
A key finding is the importance of competent legal advice to empower immigrants to make family decisions that benefit their children and themselves.
In general, the immigration experience complicates family separation, making immigrant families vulnerable during parental separation and in particular need of legal advice. This stems from a lower awareness of British family law, weaker local social networks, and often lower trust and awareness of public support available. When one or both parents are on temporary or dependent visas, ineligibility for public support due to no recourse to public funds (NRPF) is also an issue that can make family separation particularly difficult.
This lack of awareness can be weaponised prior to and during separation, making immigrant parents particularly vulnerable to domestic abuse. Many immigrants believe they will lose their visa status, or have their children taken away, if they separate from partners. Because of this they stay in abusive relationships.
Even in situations without domestic abuse, separation in immigrant families can be particularly complex, and there is a widespread need for legal advice from professionals competent in both immigration and family law.
Would greater eligibility and accessibility to legal aid help?
Legal advice before, during, and after the separation process is invaluable for immigrant families. Access to immigration advice makes immigrants suffering domestic abuse aware of their options, lowering the risk of continued exposure to coercion, financial and immigration abuse. It can also provide confidence to pursue separation and child arrangements that benefit parents and children
Immigration advice facilitates the transition to indefinite leave to remain where eligible, stabilising immigrant parents and providing access to public support. Legal aid advice can encourage formal arrangements that lowers the risk of conflict and withholding of child contact in the future, and encourages the establishment of child maintenance. Finally, legal advice can help equalise imbalances of power arising from inequalities between partners in language ability, visa status, and social and financial resources.