A new study by Professor Renee Luthra with Dr Edit Frenyo at the University of Stirling 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, to assist in transitioning to a stable migration status that facilitates a secure housing and financial position, allowing the establishment of child arrangements, and in ensuring that separating parents achieve the outcomes they are entitled to in both family and immigration law. Legal aid solicitors make a critical difference, particularly in the ability of immigrants on temporary or dependent visas to understand their rights, resist immigration abuse, and achieve just outcomes for themselves and their children. The study also provides evidence on the importance of civil society in providing immediate support for separating immigrant families, but also their limitations in terms of providing the legal advice that so many immigrant families need.
In general, the immigration experience complicates family separation, making immigrant families vulnerable during parental separation and in particular need of legal advice due to:
- Lower awareness of British family law
- Weaker local social networks which prevent immigrant families from drawing on private, financial and logistic support from family and friends
- 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)
Read our MiSoC Explainer about this study here