'For her protection and benefit': the regulation of marriage-related migration to the UK. Issue 15 (7th December 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Carver, Natasha
• Is Part Of: Ethnic and racial studies. Volume 39:Issue 15(2016)
• Page Start: 2758
• Page End: 2776
• Publication Date: 2016-12-07
• Subjects: Immigration -- gender -- law -- marriage -- migration -- intersectionality; Race -- Periodicals; Race relations -- Periodicals; Ethnic groups -- Periodicals; 305.805
• DOI: 10.1080/01419870.2016.1171369
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0141-9870

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This paper argues that a two-tier system has evolved dividing intra-UK/EU marriages from extra-UK/EU marriages. For the former, marriage is a contract between two individuals overseen by a facilitating state. For the latter, marriage has become more of a legal status defined and controlled by an intrusive and obstructive state. I argue that this divergence in legislating regulation is steeped in an ethnicized imagining of 'Britishness' whereby the more noticeably 'other' migrants (by skin colour or religion) are perceived as a threat to the national character. The conceptualization of women as legally 'disabled' citizens (1870 Naturalisation Act) for whom a state must act as responsible patriarch, is a fundamental part of this imagining of the nation. The paper therefore examines the social (gendered and ethnicized) assumptions and political aims embedded within the legislation.