Everyday Bordering in the UK: The Impact on Social Care Practitioners and the Migrant Families With Whom They Work, 2020-2022

Data are transcripts based on focus groups and qualitative interviews with social care practitioners, and interviews with members of migrant families living in the UK. Practitioner data relates to focus groups, and some interviews, conducted at the start of the study which then informed the content of one-to-one ‘mid-point’ interviews with other practitioners. Professional groups represented are linked to anonymised collaborating organisations, including: educators, family support workers, social workers and youth and community workers. Further data is based on interviews conducted with practitioners ‘external’ to the collaborating organisation, most of whom were qualified social workers. Data generated via work with migrant families include transcripts from interviews with members of migrant families. Some were interviewed separately, and others in pairs, or as a group of three. Prior to the interviews, participants completed creative diaries. However, these included names, photographs and highly personal accounts. As such, they cannot be anonymised and have not been used as data but, rather an elicitation tool in the interviews. For this reason, the content of the diaries is not shared here. All transcripts have been anonymised. Names have been replaced with pseudonyms and other identifying characteristics have been removed, including the names of identifying collaborating organisations. The study was conducted across two cities that are identified: Hull and Sheffield. For this reason, the cities and the names of some organisations and areas of the city that are referenced have not been changed.
The ‘Everyday Bordering in the UK: the impact of everyday bordering on social care practitioners and the migrant families with whom they work’, was a 30-month project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, 2020-2022. The project sought to understand if and how the UK’s increasingly hostile environment towards immigration impacts on social care practitioners and the families that they support. The aims of the project were therefore: to work with social care professionals, (with and without statutory immigration control and/or social care duties), and the migrant families supported by them to understand whether, and to what extent, practices of ‘everyday bordering’ permeate across social care professions working with a range of migrant families (refugees, asylum seekers, EU migrants and third country nationals); and to examine if and how the requirement to enact immigration control in ‘everyday’ professional practice impacts on the support migrant families receive. More broadly, the objectives of the study were: to compare whether and to what extent different social care professionals enact and/or resist ‘everyday’ bordering’ practices in their work with migrant family members, and the forms these practices take; and to understand how migrant individuals identify and experience the performance of these practices.

In order to achieve these aims and objectives, the study took a collaborative approach. Through a range of ethnographic activities, we worked with collaborating organisations and their partners to identify participants (practitioner and migrant family members) and to inform and refine the research questions. This included using semi-structed focus groups and interviews with practitioners, and interviews supported by elicitation techniques with members of migrant families. As part of the project, we also conducted creative art workshops to enable migrant family members to identify the ways in which they wanted to represent their experiences of everyday bordering. A group of young family migrant family members that we worked with in Sheffield chose to use photography, and this was exhibited as 'A Tale of Two Sheffields', in partnership with ‘City of Sanctuary – Sheffield’ at the 2022 Migrant Matters Festival. In Hull, family members chose to work with local community artists to create short films of interviews that they curated. These are included as resource in the project output, ‘Working with Migrant Communities: a resource for practitioners’. These activities and creative outputs, underpinned by the findings of the study, gave voice to members of migrant families that told us that they often feel unheard. They have also contributed to addressing a gap in training and resources for practitioners working with migrant family members.<p>The global movement of people is a growing feature of contemporary life. In the UK, policy and the media focus on the need to control all types of immigration and/or the possible 'illegality' of migrants. In 2012, for example, Theresa May stated that the Conservative-led Government aimed to deliberately create a 'hostile environment' by denying illegal immigrants access to work, housing, services and bank accounts. Subsequently, whilst some public servants, such as health care professionals, were already responsible for checking a person's immigration documents and entitlement to services, the 2014 and 2016 Immigration Acts extended these responsibilities to those that do not hold public office, such as, landlords and bank clerks. State bordering practices, therefore, extend increasingly into everyday life and this can be referred to as 'everyday bordering'.

In this hostile atmosphere, professional practice comes under increased pressure, potentially resulting in all migrants being viewed with suspicion by a range of professionals with whom they come into contact. UK legislation relating to family reunification is also increasingly subject to a range of conditions and migrant family members can have complex familial, legal circumstances that impact on their eligibility to access services. Practitioners that work with migrant families in social care settings, thereby, aim to provide families with effective support, but may also be legally obliged to enact practices of immigration control. Little attention has, however, been given to the ways in which these social care practitioners negotiate 'everyday bordering' requirements and how this impacts on the experiences of migrant families with whom they work. This project aims to examine whether, to what extent, and in what ways, practices of 'everyday bordering' permeate social care professions working with migrant families and will consider if and how these practice responses impact on the ways in which migrant families experience support.

The project will examine these questions by collaborating with and comparing experiences of practitioners working in three agencies that provide social care and support to migrant families. To ensure a range of experiences are considered, and to examine the influence of location on 'everyday bordering', these agencies will be located in urban areas in the North of England: Sheffield and Hull. During a one-year period, researchers will: review relevant policy and professional guidelines; spend time observing interactions between practitioners and migrant families; conduct focus groups and interviews with practitioners; and interview members of migrant families, including children.

Findings of the project will be of interest to audiences beyond the academy. These include, but are not limited to, organisations representing practitioners, policy makers, journalists, campaign groups, migrant families, and NGOs working with migrant families from a range of backgrounds. Findings will also inform productive professional practices and can be used not only by government but also by third sector organisations who may seek to influence policy in this area.</p>