Maternity, Migration and Asylum in Scotland

Pregnant refugee and asylum-seeking women are subject to maternal care and immigration controls, two divergent forms of state management. Both are concerned with risk, however antenatal surveillance is generally understood as a form of care for the expectant woman and her foetus, whereas immigration controls frame migrants themselves as a source of risk. In the UK, such women are also subject to contradictory policies and political ideologies, from 'New Scots Integration Strategies' to the UK-wide 'hostile environment' immigration policies. Research on forced migrants in Europe often focuses on the social, political, and physical exclusion of refugees by the state, however pregnancy and motherhood can be perceived as reasons to provide women with preferential treatment and care. This project represents a major new social science led investigation into how pregnancy and motherhood affect refugee and asylum-seeking women's experiences of migration and settlement in Scotland, with implications for how we understand women's experiences of irregular migration and asylum across Europe and beyond.

99 percent of all maternal deaths occur in developing countries, and most are caused by preventable or treatable conditions. Women in high-income countries are more likely to receive regular access to skilled health workers, however, immigrant women in those same countries can face complex and overlapping social, economic, and political obstacles to quality healthcare and positive reproductive experiences. Refugee and asylum-seeking women in the UK are at increased risk of poor pregnancy and birth outcomes and are more likely to die as a result of pregnancy or childbirth. Research suggests there are between 6,000 and 10,000 asylum-seeking women in Scotland, while the number of women who have been granted refugee status or other forms of humanitarian protection is unknown, yet very little is known about their reproductive experiences or how they can shape their capacity to navigate asylum processes. This project aims to make maternal health in refugee and asylum-seeking communities an issue of reproductive justice, contributing to the international challenge of ensuring reproductive and maternal healthcare for displaced people.

Reproductive justice was developed as a framework for activism and analysis which emphasises that gender and reproductive discrimination are intersectional, and they transect with race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, immigration status, physical ability, gender identity, sexuality, and religion. These intersectional axes of opportunity and oppression reveal that reproductive access and decision-making is more complex than the discourse of 'choice' might suggest.

This project will use a reproductive justice framework to examine the intersection of gender, reproduction and asylum in Scotland. In doing so, this project will answer the following questions:

1) How do pregnancy and motherhood shape refugee and asylum-seeking women's strategies for accessing social, economic, and medical support?
2) How do pregnancy and motherhood produce or affect personal and institutional relationships?
3) How are concepts of 'deservingness' utilised in the formal and informal support provided for asylum-seeking and refugee women?

Answering these questions will achieve the following research objectives:

a) Generate empirical evidence on refugee and asylum-seeking women's experiences of pregnancy and motherhood in Scotland;
b) Map out refugee and asylum-seeking women's formal and informal relationships and networks of support and management relating to pregnancy and immigration status;
c) Develop an ethnographic approach to reproductive justice that centres reproductive politics in refugee and migration studies.