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Skills, sexual citizens and the UK's family reunion provision

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Feminist Review

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Notes

  1. This paper draws on research conducted towards my Ph.D. thesis: ‘Akin to Marriage’: Sexual Citizenship, Heterosexism and Immigration in the UK' for which I interviewed 14 same-sex couples (half of whom were female) between November 2000 and November 2001.

  2. A number of European states have adopted legislation that recognizes same-sex partnerships, although the availability of partnership rights is not always ‘automatically’ available for migrants, for example as in the case of France with the PACs (Pacte civil de solidarité). Also registered partnerships may not always be recognized for the purpose of immigration although Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Germany, Iceland, Sweden and Norway do. See www.ilga.org/ for a full list of countries that recognize registered partnerships for immigration purposes. Also, see the UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group's website www.stonewall-immigration.org.uk/ for information on countries both inside and outside Europe which recognize civil partnerships for the purpose of immigration.

  3. The history of the provision for unmarried people in UK immigration policy has been patchy to say the least. Heterosexual men were able to bring in a female ‘common-law’ partner till 1985. The sexism of this policy was addressed with the introduction of the sex discrimination act in that same year and a concession was introduced, which allowed heterosexual unmarried couples to enter as common law husbands and wives. This was later removed in 1996 during a debate where Labour MPs demanded parity with this group for same-sex couples (who had not thus far been recognized) from the then Conservative government. The Labour government after lobbying from Stonewall immigration representing same-sex couples secured a concession. This, however, excluded unmarried heterosexual couples as it stipulated couples must be ‘legally unable to marry’. This impediment was removed on the 1 April 2003. Currently, the UK lesbian and gay Immigration Group understand that as a result of the announcement of the Civil Partnerships Bill announced in the Queen's speech 20th November 2003 same-sex couples could make an application for entry to the UK to register a partnership and then make an application to remain based on that relationship. Also civil partners can naturalise after three years bringing them in line with the rules for married partners – though the timescale for this is as yet unclear.

  4. There is little work on occupations and lesbian and gays. Badgett and King's (1997) examination of quantative data in the US points to how gay men are overrepresented in ‘professional/technical/clerical/sales’ and service sector categories. Lesbians, on the other hand, are concentrated in craft/operative positions. As the authors acknowledge, qualitative data may provide a clearer picture on this issue. However, it does provide some indication as to where sexual citizens may be placed in relation to certain occupations and specifically shortage occupations.

References

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to Eleonore Kofman and Parvati Raghuram at Nottingham Trent University for their encouragement and support during and after the Ph.D. research that forms this article.

Authors
  1. Tracy Simmons
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Simmons, T. Skills, sexual citizens and the UK's family reunion provision. Fem Rev 77, 172–174 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.fr.9400164

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