Search

This submission to the Inquiry builds on several past and ongoing research and consultancy projects that focus on the areas of family policy in relation to international migration. We do not attempt to respond to all questions, but only those areas within our personal knowledge and expertise. In terms of geographic coverage, findings (differentiated within the text below by locality) relate to the UK-wide picture in terms of policy and reflects findings from studies undertaken across several regions (eg., Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Essex, London and Kent). Our response also includes the perspectives of UK Armed Forces veterans who currently reside in their home countries due to an inability to acquire British citizenship/the right to remain in the UK after leaving service.\ud The key contributions and proposals in this submission relate to the following questions:\ud i. Design of family migration law: questions 1, 2, 3.\ud ii. How family migration policies affect society: question 6.\ud iii. How migration policies affect families: question 7

On the 9th of July 2021, the Rethinking Military Spouses: Critical Research Group hosted a webinar titled ‘Bringing the Homefront to the Forefront: UK Perspectives on Critical Research with Military Spouses’. This report provides some information about the event and includes an overview of the main points of discussion focused on four key themes – access, methodologies, impact, and criticality. When conducting critical research with military spouses, researchers must consider a wide range of issues particular to this specific group. These include: • Challenges around gaining access and the implications that recruitment strategies might have on the voices that are heard. • Choosing a methodological approach and associated methods which enable rich perspectives and experiences to be heard – balancing the needs of research objectives whilst also considering possible benefits to the participants. • Balancing research objectives and activities with expectations of academic institutions, funders, and identified beneficiaries –considering what impact might be and how it can be achieved and accounted for. • Navigating how the dynamics of criticality must be balanced against the need to attract funding, articulate impact, and gain ethics approval from the MOD – with there sometimes being tensions between these factors. Research which centres military spouses is needed in order to understand the impact of military life, power, and processes beyond more obviously militarised phenomena.

Military veterans are likely to have encountered death, pain, and suffering, and to have prepared for them like few other groups in society. This is also a group trained to follow highly ceremonial rituals around death, burials, and commemoration. Yet veterans are not seen as ‘different’ in palliative and end-of-life care (EoLC), including that provided by GP practices. Throughout military service, encounters with death and dying are frequently intense, highly personal, and potentially traumatic, in ways seldom seen or understood in civilian life. Furthermore, the nature of military occupation — resembling more a lifestyle than a job — entails cultural separation from civilian life, with perceptions, norms, and ideals around death and dying forming part of this culture. Embodied experiences in military life as well as psychological, social, and ethical constructs (for example, guiding beliefs, value systems, norms, rules, and expectations) are often markedly different from those of civilian society. We do not know enough about how this legacy impacts the dying process in veterans and what the health services implications are, including in the context of general practice.

The main aims of this study were: 1) To explore the physical, psychological and social wellbeing of older, limbless veterans across the life-course; 2) To ascertain the factors that contribute to the ability of limbless veterans to maintain their independence at various stages in their lives. Ultimately, this research aimed to produce recommendations for health and social care policy around the requirements of an ageing veteran population, inform future service design, and shape the interface between NHS and third sector organisations with responsibility to care for limbless veterans. The research used a peer-led approach to successfully identify and engage older limbless veterans. The research team conducted detailed life history interviews. The life histories of 32 limbless veterans, aged between 43 and 95 formed the data for the study. Each of the participants were involved in semistructured life history interviews.

We use narrative inquiry to illustrate the complex lives and experiences of combat veterans who go surfing to deal with the traumatic aftermath of war. The stories we collected reveal the rich and varied qualities of veterans’ surfing experiences. These stories are several things at once. They are personal, revealing the body in motion as it negotiates the natural environment. They are social and cultural, shaped as they are by dominant societal narratives about veterans and masculinity. And, importantly, they are also actors, shaping the ways in which veterans experience themselves, each other, and the world around them., Utilizamos la investigación narrativa para ilustrar las complejas vidas y experiencias de los veteranos de combate que van a surfear para tratar las consecuencias traumáticas de la guerra. Las historias que recopilamos revelan las cualidades ricas y variadas de las experiencias de surf de los veteranos. Estas historias son varias cosas a la vez. Son personales, revelando el cuerpo en movimiento mientras que negocia el ambiente natural. Son sociales y culturales, conformados por las narrativas dominantes de la sociedad sobre los veteranos y la masculinidad. Y, lo que es más importante, también son actores, moldeando las maneras en que los veteranos se experimentan a sí mismos, entre ellos, y el mundo que los rodea., Usamos a investigação narrativa para ilustrar as vidas complexas e experiências de veteranos de combate que vão surfar para lidar com as conseqüências traumáticas da guerra. As histórias que coletamos revelam as qualidades ricas e variadas das experiências de surf dos veteranos. Essas histórias são várias coisas ao mesmo tempo. Eles são pessoais, revelando o corpo em movimento como ele negocia o ambiente natural. Eles são sociais e culturais, moldados como eles são por narrativas societal dominantes sobre veteranos e masculinidade. E, o mais importante, eles também são atores, moldando as maneiras pelas quais os veteranos experimentam a si mesmos, uns aos outros e ao mundo à sua volta.