An ideal husband? Marriages of convenience, moral gate-keeping and immigration to the United Kingdom

This paper considers the treatment of ‘marriages of convenience’ or ‘sham marriages’ in UK immigration law. Such measures inevitably involve a degree of moral and cultural gate-keeping as decision-makers are obliged to measure the alleged sham marriage against the template of a ‘genuine’ relationship. However, the paper argues that the function of such measures has often been to enhance the ability to exclude or remove unwanted immigrants.