Routes event: Marriage, migration and Integration with Professor Katharine Charsley

Based on research funded by the ESRC, the book goes behind commonly made claims that spouses coming from overseas present an integration challenge, with consequences not just themselves but also their UK-based partners, and children born into the new family. The book treats integration as a multi-faceted process of interaction, and personal and social change among individuals and institutions across a range of domains.  Using quantitative and qualitative data to compare the trajectory of those in transnational marriages with those in intra-ethnic marriages within the UK, the book challenges the assumptions that are often made and points to the structural obstacles that are faced by newly arrived spouses and the ways that these might be alleviated. Katharine’s work is of huge significance for those working on integration, family migration and related questions and her talk was followed by a lively discussion of both the importance and the sensitivities of working in such a controversial area.