Family migration policies in the United Kingdom: actors, practices and concerns.

From the mid 1960s until 1997 immigration policy was largely concerned with curbing nonwhite immigration, and especially restricting marriage migration and other family members from the Indian sub continent. Much political and administrative effort was devoted to this end. Campaigning groups formed around these issues. There were also many legal challenges to the rules regulating the entry of family members. However with the abolition of the primary purpose rule in 1997 and the shift towards an interest in increasing labour migration within an overall managed migration policy and controlling the numbers of asylum
seekers, family migration ceased to be a major preoccupation. This was demonstrated by the lack of attention paid to family migration in the Home Office and the difficulty of following through how decisions were made about the EU family reunification directive. Amongst
academics too family migration has been under-researched.
This situation has begun to change as marriage in particular has once again come to be the focus of legislative activity and drawn the attention of academic research1. Ethnic minority organisations, especially women’s groups, have also taken up a number of issues, such as the probationary period after marriage migration, no recourse to public funds for women with insecure immigration status, inability to access child tax credits, divided families and forced marriage. The paper examines the relevant activities and views of government authorities, independent public bodies, NGOs, community organisations and experts in relation to familyrelated
migration and associated issues. The first section deals with the perceived significance of family migration policies, how and by whom they have been shaped, and
especially the extent to which legal, advice and community organisations have played a role in changing and challenging them. The second section lists some of the key organisations involved and interested in family migration issues.