Lucy Williams

Social Networks of Refugees in the United Kingdom: Tradition, Tactics and New Community Spaces

This study is based on three years of participative, ethnographic fieldwork with asylum-seekers and refugees in the United Kingdom. Through participant observation and analysis of ego-centred networks, I attempted to build trusting research relationships with individual refugees coming to terms with life in exile. Refugees themselves have played an integral part in the innovative research design which has evolved in response to their contributions. The research demonstrates that, contrary to some stereotypes, refugees endeavour to be proactive social actors. This counters the predominant assumption of refugee dependency. Furthermore, the research adds to existing work on the social networks of refugees by providing an intimate picture of a small group of refugees. It describes their tactics in meeting practical and emotional needs, describes how these networks spread across continents and from home country to countries of exile, and proposes a new typology based on the strength of network ties:

Interpreting Services for Refugees: Hearing Voices?

This article examines current issues in the use of interpreting services, as experienced by refugees and asylum seekers in the UK. The paper begins with a review of relevant literature on interpreting services and relates it to the service context and the specific needs of refugees and asylum seekers. There follows a discussion of a small‐scale research project carried out with interpreters working in these services. Recommendations are made which include the need to educate all three parties (the professional employing the interpreter, the interpreter and the client) in not only best practice and practical techniques of working with interpreters, but also broader issues such as the complexity of the interpreting process, the importance of establishing trust, competing agendas and negotiation of meaning that are implicit in the interpretation process.

'No one knows like we do' - the narratives of mental health service users trained as researchers

In 2008, Mind in Bexley received a research development grant from the Big Lottery Fund and a training grant from Bexley Care Trust to empower service users to participate and contribute to a pilot research project. The project aims were to work with, develop, train and support service users as researchers, in order to record the narratives of service users who have common experiences of mental health distress and treatment. The research development project set up an advisory group, created and developed a partnership with the University of Kent and provided workshops and training sessions to explore some of the principles of research and ethics. In addition, the group undertook a preliminary literature review, developed and refined a research questionnaire and piloted interviews with six service users. Many issues were raised and lessons learned during the planning and conduct of the project. This paper discusses the process and reflects on aspects of the projects design and delivery. In addition, this paper highlights some of the difficulties in undertaking service user research and suggests recommendations as to how to overcome some of these complex issues.

Refugees and asylum seekers as a group at risk of adult abuse

This paper aims to raise awareness of the vulnerability of some refugees to various forms of abuse. It will relate the forms of abuse described in No Secrets to the situation of refugees and asylum seekers in general and will then focus on three groups of refugees who may be especially vulnerable. Recommendations to reduce the vulnerability of refugees are included.

Migration Regimes and Policy Implications

This chapter will attempt to analyse the effect of policy on how and why marriage migration takes place. Many policies relating to cross-border marriage migration have the objectives of controlling flows of migrants and channelling and shaping migration according to the norms of the country of settlement. I will begin my discussion, however, by considering the impact of policy in the countries of origin and on how they promote or constrain marriage migration. Following that, will look more closely at policy in the countries of settlement — which has been far more heavily researched. My focus will be on identifying the underpinnings of policy and I will look in detail at how conceptions of citizenship impact on the lived experience of marriage migrants. A common theme in work on marriage migration is how policies act to restrict the agency of migrants even while policy-makers may have the publicly stated aim of protecting migrants from those wishing to take advantage of them — be they smugglers and traffickers or unscrupulous family members. This chapter attempts to provide an overview of how policy impacts upon marriage migrants both positively and negatively.

An Overview of Global Cross-Border Marriage Migration

This chapter sets out to introduce the various domains of academic literature that touch on the subject matter of this book. These domains stretch from the macro- to the micro- and include studies using demographic and economic methods focusing on the impact of cross-border marriage on political economies; sociological works analysing social change and the social effect of marriage across borders as well as anthropological studies focusing on the meanings of marriages to individuals and their cultural groups. The chapter will demonstrate that while there is considerable academic interest in certain types of cross-border marriage and marriage migration, there is little cross-fertilisation between the different areas of study. It is the aim of this chapter, however, to bring the different strands in the literature together to look for common themes and positions and to identify areas in which inter-disciplinary work could inform understanding. Given the size and steady expansion of work in this field, the aim here is not to comprehensively describe all the academic studies that are relevant to cross-border marriage migration but to introduce some key academic debates that provide a context for the more detailed exploration of marriage migration in later chapters.

Marriage within Refugee Communities

This chapter is the third chapter in this book to explore the notion of transnationalism in cross-border marriages. Chapter 6 considered marriages within South Asian transnational communities and Chapter 7 considered cross-border marriages in East Asia that I consider to be non-transnational or possibly pre-transnational. This chapter will explore marriages within refugee communities as, I argue, these marriages demonstrate how the two types of cross-border marriage, transnational and non-transnational, can provide opportunities for migrants to exhibit their personal and collective agency in negotiating the structures of policy and politics. Marriage within refugee communities represents a relatively unexplored field and the evidence presented here is slight, in comparison to the welter of research in relation to the other marriages discussed. Despite this, I argue that research in this field presents an opportunity to study marriages within communities that are just beginning to establish a collective identity and may be informative about how transnational consciousnesses develop and the potential role of cross-border marriage in that development.

Cross-Border Marriages within East Asia

This chapter follows on from Chapter 6 as an exploration of a particular type of cross-border marriage migration. Chapter 6 considered marriages that may be considered transnational according to definitions employed in this book. They are made within communities that are linked across international borders by practical, emotional and symbolic ties and in this, markedly contrast with the marriages described in this chapter. Here, the subject of the chapter is cross-border marriages between ethnic and cultural groups. These marriages are made by individuals or networks rather than within communities and in contrast to transnational marriages, the partners may have little practical knowledge of the lives and expectations of their new spouses. Marriages within East Asia will be used as a sample to explore not least as there has been a great deal of research done in the area from a variety of perspectives and these marriages hold an important place in the national imaginations of the host countries as to what migration is and who migrants are. The importance of these marriage within the context of this book, however, is that I argue these marriages are not transnational — cross-national but not transnational. I argue further that some of them may be developing transnational sensibilities and logics, but that, as they stand, they cannot be considered transnational by accepted definitions.

Introducing Cross-Border Marriage Migration

This book takes a broad view of the global phenomenon of cross-border marriage migration and attempts to highlight the migration choices and strategies of individuals, families and communities within political, legal, social and economic structures. It attempts to analyse patterns of migration from the perspectives of the migrants themselves and, using mostly secondary data, will discuss how marriage across borders may mould the migration patterns of individuals and communities. Throughout the book I start from the assumption that citizenship of countries from the Global South is a disadvantage in terms of global migration as, in general, all but the elites of these countries, are disqualified from the migration opportunities that citizens of the developed enjoy. I emphasise, however, that connection to countries of the Global South may confer other attributes that open channels of migration which can be exploited by would-be migrants. By focusing on the migration stories of migrants, this book aims to improve understanding of how migration may be negotiated as well as learn about the affects of migration on migrants and those connected to them. Cross-border marriage migration provides a case study for these far-reaching issues as it is a truly global phenomenon and one which sees migrants moving between the developing countries of the world as well as between developing and developed countries.

Migrant Life/Married Life

The life histories of women and men considering migration for the purpose of marriage naturally have a profound effect on their chance of finding foreign-national partners, on their potential for negotiating entry into their spouse’s country of residence and on how such marriages are contracted. The Internet and other forms of global communication have radically altered the ways marriages are negotiated and arranged whether between ethnic groups or within them, and the use of agents of various types has increased and developed to take advantage of these opportunities. Academic studies of women in the Philippines who have contracted, or who wish to contract, marriages overseas describe their complex reasoning and some of the ways they seek to balance of the pros and cons of marriage and the realities of their own and their families’ lives. Spouses who are citizens of the potential country of settlement are also shown, according to research, as weighing up the relative advantages of marriage with nationals of different countries. Potential spouses and their families in both countries of emigration and immigration may be involved in arranging and negotiating what, in their view, are suitable matches even though the information they are basing their opinions on may be sparse and unreliable. This chapter sets out to consider how the decision to marry across borders may come about and what the results of such marriages may be. As in previous chapters, the decisions migrants make are shown as being made by individuals able to act with differing degrees of agency and autonomy within the structural parameters set for them by families, communities and legislative frameworks.