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

这一奖学金将通过一本书和一篇文章进一步影响我的博士研究，目标受众包括教育和卫生从业者、地方和国家政策制定者以及对母亲和移民感兴趣的学者。我的职业发展将包括公共参与、联合制作和政策影响方面的培训，并与包括家庭在内的利益相关者合作，分享关键发现并制定战略，以实现积极的社会变革。我还将制定并提交一份研究提案，将这项工作的影响扩大到研究金以外。这项研究建立在我的人种学博士研究的基础上，该研究表明，种族少数的母亲的不安全移民地位如何限制了母亲的育儿、友谊和夫妻关系实践，这些母亲被“敌对环境”政策边缘化。博士学位在理解值得信赖的亲密关系和社会关系在获得支持和“做”、归属和公民身份方面的中心地位方面做出了重大贡献。我发现，恶劣的环境降低了人们对公共机构的信任，让母亲们感到获得服务不安全。这破坏了人们对人际关系的信任，并影响了日常互动。因此，它限制了获得社会支助的机会，并对母亲及其子女的个人福祉产生了负面影响。我发现，在不同类型的关系中，母亲们必须解决关系中的矛盾和日常互动。例如，母亲们必须平衡亲密关系的需要(通过自我披露)和隐私的需要；她们还必须平衡对实际支持和资源的需要以及在她们的网络中获得帮助的有限机会。在夫妻关系中，一些母亲不得不在照顾和被控制之间权衡。这些结构性紧张局势产生了持久的不安全感，往往使母亲更容易被剥削。这种研究金将使我能够广泛分享我的调查结果，并增加影响力，影响公共政策和塑造实践--首先是通过学术出版物、媒体文章和实践者/政策导向的文章，其次是通过会议、演讲和知识交流讲习班直接与各种受众接触。我的目标是提高第一线从业者对种族少数母亲所面临的挑战的认识，这些母亲的移民地位不稳定，无法求助于公共资金(NRPF)。研究金活动将宣传移民身份如何影响关系做法和获得支持的途径，以及对儿童的影响。我将与从业者进行对话，设法提高对因其地位而被边缘化的母亲和儿童的需求的敏感性，并为他们提供更好的支持。我还将与地方、伦敦和国家层面的政策制定者接触。在一个或多个地方当局，我将确定适当的论坛，以促进与议会官员和地方决策者的讨论。在城市一级，我将与主要利益攸关方接触，包括GLA领导的伦敦战略移民伙伴关系；负责社会融合、社会流动和社区参与的副市长；伦敦信托基金和伦敦议会。该奖学金还将使我能够通过参加关于NRPF和移民法和政策的跨党派议会小组，为国家层面的政策讨论做出贡献。我将通过在BSA和IMISCOE等两个相关的国内和国际会议上发表关于关键主题的报告，以及在包括社会科学家反对敌对环境的系列学术研讨会上，与学术听众分享我的研究成果。我将向会议提交摘要，以介绍研究金的“影响之路”，以便分享我对公共参与和影响政策的过程和结果的思考。

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.