UK-EU couples after Brexit: migrantization and the UK family immigration regime

英国脱欧后的英国-欧盟夫妇：移民和英国家庭移民制度

• 批准号: ES/X000214/1
• 负责人: Katharine Charsley
• 金额: $ 90.87万
• 依托单位: University of Bristol
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FX000214%2F1
• 关键词: UK; EU; couples; after; Brexit

In September 2021, a Guardian editorial highlighted the plight of families separated by Brexit: UK citizens in Europe seeking to return to Britain found that their European spouse or partner could not obtain a 'family permit' to join them, and families were caught in what was described as a Kafkaesque situation of suspicion, bureaucracy and delay. These stories are just the start of the implications of Brexit for UK-EU couples, who had previously enjoyed an almost unconditional right to live in the UK. After Brexit, those whose marriage or registered partnership postdates 31st December 2020 and want to live together in the UK, couples living elsewhere in the EU wishing to relocate to the UK after 29th March 2022, and those in the UK where the EU partner does not have settled or pre-settled status or another visa must all apply for spouse/partner visas, a prolonged and expensive process that requires them to meet income requirements for the British partner that are set higher than earnings of around half the working population, and involves assessments of the 'genuineness' of relationships and 'suitability' of applicants. The consequences for these families is an overlooked effect of Brexit, having been neglected in research and public discussion. Existing research has documented the widespread negative consequences of the UK's family immigration rules through family separation, hardship, and inequalities in access to legal status. Those who cannot meet financial requirements often do not apply, and one in five applications are refused. Errors in visa decision-making mean half of human rights appeals succeed - but appeals are costly, lengthy and stressful. These regulations have long been in place for couples comprising a UK citizen and an overseas partner from outside the EU, but their application to UK-EU couples represents a major change.Although immigration has taken centre stage in political and academic discussion around Brexit, debates have focussed on labour and irregular migration. The neglect of spouse/partner migration (alongside family migration in general) in these discussions is surprising given the fact that spouses and partners are among the largest sources of long-term migration to the UK, and the frequency of UK-EU partnerships: around 4% of all couples in England and Wales consist of one UK-born, and one EU-born partner. Given the many, continuing connections between the UK and Europe (through travel, family, business, education etc), opportunities for relationships between UK and EU citizens will continue, but little attention has been paid to how such couples will be impacted by Brexit.This project responds to this urgent gap in the research agenda on the implications of Brexit. It will document how UK-EU couples respond to the intrusion of immigration regulations into their intimate family lives; what new inequalities emerge in this diverse population; and the impact on political and legal discourses of this expansion of the population affected by immigration regulations. The project will capture the crucial initial phase of incorporation of UK-EU relationships into the UK immigration regime, and how the first cohort of UK-EU couples negotiate this new encounter with legal barriers to their mobility and ability to live together in the country of their choice. It will identify personal, social and political impacts for UK-EU couples; identify groups particularly negatively affected; chart emerging legal, policy, and advocacy developments; and create new perspectives on the regulation of spousal migration. The team will work with an Advisory Group of key support and campaigning organisations, and findings from the project will inform service provision, interventions in policy debates, advocacy and legal challenges that will improve the lives of UK-EU couples and, through its focus on problems in the family migration regime, all mixed nationality couples subject to immigration control.

2021年9月，英国《卫报》的一篇社论强调了因英国脱欧而分离的家庭的困境：在欧洲寻求返回英国的英国公民发现，他们的欧洲配偶或伴侣无法获得加入他们的家庭许可证，家庭陷入了被描述为卡夫卡式的猜疑、官僚和拖延的境地。这些故事只是英国脱欧对英国-欧盟夫妇影响的开始，他们之前几乎无条件地享有在英国生活的权利。英国退欧后，那些结婚或登记的伴侣日期在2020年12月31日并希望在英国生活在一起的人，生活在欧盟其他地方的夫妇希望在2022年3月29日之后移居英国的夫妇，以及那些在英国的欧盟伴侣尚未定居或预先确定身份或其他签证的人都必须申请配偶/伴侣签证，这是一个漫长而昂贵的过程，要求他们满足英国伴侣的收入要求，这一要求高于约一半工作人口的收入要求，并涉及对关系的“真实性”和申请者的“适宜性”进行评估。对这些家庭的后果是英国退欧被忽视的影响，在研究和公共讨论中被忽视了。现有的研究记录了英国家庭移民规则通过家庭分离、困难和获得合法身份方面的不平等而产生的广泛的负面后果。那些不能满足财务要求的人通常不申请，五分之一的申请被拒绝。签证决策中的错误意味着一半的人权上诉成功--但上诉代价高昂、耗时长且压力大。这些规定长期以来一直适用于由英国公民和来自欧盟以外的海外伴侣组成的夫妇，但它们适用于英国和欧盟的夫妇代表着一个重大变化。尽管移民问题在围绕英国退欧的政治和学术讨论中占据了中心舞台，但辩论的焦点是劳动力和非正常移民。考虑到配偶和伴侣是长期移民到英国的最大来源之一，以及英国-欧盟伙伴关系的频率：在英格兰和威尔士，大约4%的夫妇由一个在英国出生的伴侣和一个在欧盟出生的伴侣组成，在这些讨论中忽视配偶/伴侣移民(以及总体上的家庭移民)是令人惊讶的。鉴于英国和欧洲之间的许多、持续的联系(通过旅行、家庭、商业、教育等)，英国和欧盟公民之间的关系机会将继续存在，但很少有人关注这些夫妇将如何受到英国退欧的影响。该项目回应了英国退欧影响研究议程中的这一紧迫缺口。它将记录英国-欧盟夫妇如何应对移民法规对他们亲密家庭生活的干扰；在这个多元化的人口中出现了哪些新的不平等；以及受移民法规影响的人口扩张对政治和法律话语的影响。该项目将捕捉将英国与欧盟的关系纳入英国移民制度的关键初始阶段，以及第一批英国-欧盟夫妇如何应对这一新的遭遇，他们的流动性和在他们选择的国家生活在一起的能力受到法律障碍。它将确定对英国-欧盟夫妇的个人、社会和政治影响；确定受到特别负面影响的群体；绘制新的法律、政策和倡导发展情况；并在配偶移民监管方面创造新的视角。该团队将与一个由关键支持和活动组织组成的咨询小组合作，该项目的发现将为服务提供、政策辩论干预、宣传和法律挑战提供信息，这些将改善英国-欧盟夫妇的生活，并通过关注家庭移民制度中的问题，将所有受移民控制的混合国籍夫妇纳入其中。