While respect for family life is central as a human right, states retain the authority to control migration and limit possibilities for family reunification. This doctoral dissertation in public law examines the tension between states’ control over migration and individuals’ rights to family life, suggesting that family migration law can be understood as a system of migration control that includes restrictions on entry and prioritisation of certain family relationships.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyse how migrants’ family ties are constructed within family migration law. This objective is pursued through a mapping and analysis of relevant legal frameworks and applications. The study includes both legal sources and empirical materials, specifically decisions from the Swedish Migration Agency.

Methodologically, the research employs both doctrinal legal method and thematic analysis combined with a social constructionist approach. A fundamental premise is that law plays a significant role in society and that legal regulations and applications are not neutral but represent a form of power. An important aspect of this approach is the examination of legal discretion. Given that the Swedish Aliens Act is characterised as framework law, expressed through vague language and concepts, legal practitioners must make their own choices and considerations in legal judgments. Analysing the scope of this discretion and how norms, assumptions, and expectations regarding valid family structures are managed is a crucial part of the analysis. These norms, assumptions, and expectations, expressed in both legal regulations and practice, are described as different ‘logics’ through which family ties are constructed, specifically social and biological logics, as well as time-based logics. 

The overall conclusion is that the demarcation and meaning assigned to family ties occur through specific power processes. The thesis demonstrates that power is expressed through the predominance of legal practitioners’ own logic in interpreting the family concept. Among the effects of this power is the restriction of various forms of family ties, influenced by social, biological, and temporal logics. The thesis highlights that temporality is a particularly prominent means of governing family migration. In terms of temporal logics, family ties are often constructed as ‘broken’, controlling how past events may limit opportunities for family reunification both now and in the future. Temporal logics also relate to how family ties are constructed based on chronological age. Furthermore, power is identified as a manifestation of biopolitical disciplinary power, showing that families granted residence permits are those that can exhibit the ‘right’ form of intimacy and family characteristics. This includes the assumption that a family primarily consists of a mother, a father, and their common biological minor children. Consequently, the nuclear family is produced and reproduced in family migration law as the site where family life is expected to unfold. Overall, the thesis demonstrates how family migration law operates as an arena of power when classifying and assessing family ties.