Title: Maternity, Migration and Asylum in Scotland
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Abstract: This project is 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 the gendering of migration and asylum across Europe and beyond. Refugee and asylum-seeking women face obstacles accessing healthcare and support, and experience significantly higher rates of maternal mortality, mental illness, and social isolation. Yet little is understood about the ways in which pregnancy and motherhood shape how women navigate asylum and settlement. This project will use a reproductive justice framework to examine the intersection of gender, reproduction and asylum in Scotland, and the ways in which these three axes produce and shape one another. In doing so, this project has three main 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. The PI is an early career scholar with expertise in reproductive health, motherhood, and displacement. Her doctoral research examined how Somali women in Kenya accessed reproductive and maternal healthcare in a context of protracted displacement, and the ways in which motherhood was central to women's experiences of and strategies for migration. This project will build on her previous work and enable her to develop new skills in research methods, leadership, and KEI, which are vital for her career progression. The PI is the Director of the University of Edinburgh's Centre for Medical Anthropology (EdCMA) and the founder of the Reproduction Edinburgh (RED) Network. This project will: 1) provide a step-change in the career development of the PI as a world-leading social science researcher; 2) establish the RED network at the cutting edge of research on the anthropology of reproduction and 3) build the PI's capacity to train future researchers in this field. In line with the New Investigator Grant's aims, the project pursues the following additional objectives that will enable the PI to lead world-leading research that will have lasting social impact: Skills development objectives: a) Complete a bespoke skills development programme at the host institution, including the Research Leader Programme for new and aspiring PIs; b) Complete research and ethics training with the Scottish Refugee Council and Women's Aid; c) Develop new interdisciplinary research, analysis, and user engagement skills during a visiting fellowship at the Center on Reproductive Rights and Justice at Berkeley Law; d) Complete reproductive justice training for the PI and RA with SisterSong; e) Develop new strategies for user engagement by collaborating with the British Red Cross, the Scottish Refugee Council, and the Scottish Government; f) Complete doula training for methodology; g) Develop skills in exhibition curation and delivery for the PI and RA; h) Complete ESRC Media Training. KEI objectives: a) Engage in productive knowledge exchange with academic beneficiaries during and after fellowship at CRRJ, Berkeley; b) Convene an international conference on maternal health and displacement with key beneficiaries at the host institution; c) Convene stakeholder workshop on reproductive justice as a tool for understanding and responding to injustice, including capacity building training facilitated by SisterSong; d) Produce high-quality research outputs for users and academic beneficiaries; e) Curate Glasgow MAMAS exhibition and booklet for Refugee Festival Scotland; f) Produce media outputs including news articles and social media infographics to raise public awareness.

Lay abstract: 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.

Research activity codes: 1.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROCESSES;8.1 ORGANISATION AND DELIVERY OF SERVICES
Health categories: REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND CHILDBIRTH