Helena Wray is Professor of Migration Law and an expert on British immigration law, with a focus on the regulation of families through immigration control. She is currently working with Professor Katharine Charsley (University of Bristol) on a three year (2023-2026) ESRC funded project 'UK-EU couples after Brexit: migrantization and the UK family immigration regime'. Her most recent monograph is 'Article 8 ECHR, Family Reunification and the UK’s Supreme Court: Family Matters?' which was published by Hart in February 2023.
Between July 2022 and February 2023, she was specialist advisor to the House of Lords Committee on Justice and Home Affairs during its inquiry into family migration. In 2015, she was the lead author of a major report, commissioned by the Children’s Commissioner for England from Middlesex University and Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants and launched in Parliament, on the impact of the financial requirements in the family migration rules on children. She also led teams that submitted expert evidence in two test cases heard in the Supreme Court, Ali and Bibi v SSHD on pre-entry language testing for spouses, and the key case of MM v SSHD on the financial conditions to be met by the sponsors of migrant spouses and partners, leading to changes in the Immigration Rules. In 2013, she gave written and oral evidence in the House of Commons at the All Party Parliamentary Group on Migration’s Enquiry into Family Migration.
Between 2011 and 2022, she was editor of Journal of Immigration Asylum and Nationality Law.
Helena came to academic life after working for some years as a solicitor in the City of London. She has an interest in pro bono legal services and was previously a founding member and Chair of a Law Centre in London. She returned to academic study via a PhD at SOAS, University of London, and worked at Middlesex University, London, before coming to Exeter.
Research supervision:
Helena welcomes enquiries from students interested in researching migration law related subjects.
She has supervised or is currently supervising PhD students on a range of subjects including the human rights of migrant domestic workers, migration and human dignity, the relationship between legal advisers and unaccompanied children, and remote immigration bail hearings.
