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Asylum-seeking families in current legal discourse: a UK perspective

Asylum-seeking families in the UK tend to be regarded as a homogeneous group. This article questions that assumption and suggests that, in reality, the term ‘asylum-seeking family’ can denote various relationships between family members. There are, it is argued, many ‘typologies’ of the asylum-seeking family, and typology is crucial to the form of protection afforded to the asylum-seeker. This article examines the issues and difficulties confronting some of these typologies with particular reference to the role played by law in granting or resisting protection. A key focus is Article 8 of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights and the developing jurisprudence before the European, as well as national, courts on the interpretation of ‘family life’ and ‘private life’. In discussing a number of recent highly significant UK cases, it will be shown that, for some types of family, Article 8 might provide a route to greater protection than is currently achievable under the asylum process.