Mothering in a hostile environment: from ethnographic research to crafting pathways to impact

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This fellowship will generate further impact from my doctoral research through a book and articles aimed at audiences including education and health practitioners, local and national policymakers, and scholars interested in motherhood and migration. My career development will include training in public engagement, co-production and policy impact, and work with stakeholders, including families, to share key findings and devise strategies for positive social change. I will also develop and submit a research proposal to extend the impact of this work beyond the fellowship. The research builds on my ethnographic PhD study which showed how the insecure immigration statuses of racially minoritised mothers, marginalised by the 'hostile environment' policy, constrain mothering, friendship and couple relationship practices. The PhD made significant contributions to understanding the centrality of trustworthy intimate and social relationships for accessing support and 'doing' belonging and citizenship. I found that the hostile environment reduced trust in public institutions, making mothers feel unsafe to access services. This undermined trust in personal relationships and affected everyday interactions. It therefore restricted access to social support and had negative effects on individual wellbeing, both for mothers and their children. I found that within different kinds of relationships, mothers had to negotiate contradictions in relationships and everyday interactions. For example, mothers had to balance the need for intimacy (through self-disclosure) with the need for privacy; they also had to balance needs for practical support and resources with limited possibilities for help in their networks. Some mothers had to navigate between care and being controlled in couple relationships. These structural tensions generated persistent feelings of insecurity, and often made mothers more vulnerable to exploitation.This fellowship would enable me to share my findings widely and increase impact, influencing public policy and shaping practice - firstly through academic publications, media articles and practitioner/policy-oriented articles, and secondly by engaging directly with a range of audiences through meetings, presentations and knowledge exchange workshops. I aim to raise awareness amongst frontline practitioners of the challenges faced by racially minoritised mothers whose immigration statuses are insecure and who have 'no recourse to public funds' (NRPF). The fellowship activities will publicise the ways in which immigration status affects relational practices and access to support, and the impact on children. I will engage in dialogue with practitioners to find ways to increase sensitivity to the needs of, and access to better support for, mothers and children who are marginalised by their status. I will also engage with policymakers at local, London and national levels. In one or more local authorities, I will identify suitable forums for contributing to discussions with council officers and local decision-makers. At the city level, I will engage with key stakeholders including the GLA-led London Strategic Migration Partnership; the Deputy Mayor for Social Integration, Social Mobility and Community Engagement; Trust for London, and London Councils. The fellowship will also allow me to contribute to policy discussions at the national level through participation in the All Party Parliamentary Groups on NRPF and Immigration Law and Policy.I will share my research with academic audiences by presenting on key topics at two relevant national and international conferences, such as BSA and IMISCOE, and at academic seminar series, including Social Scientists Against the Hostile Environment. I will submit abstracts to conferences for presentations on the 'pathways to impact' strand of the fellowship, in order to share my reflections on the process and outcomes of public engagement and influencing policy.