Family law and access to territory and nationality: evolutions in opposite directions

The law of migration and the law of nationality recourse to family law for their application. These three subject matters pursue their own objectives but remain inherently linked. However, we can witness that their respective evolutions do not follow the same path. On the one hand, family law is considerably evolving towards greater equality of genders or recognition of single-parent families. On the other hand, access to nationality or to territory is more and more restricted. The rules on family reunification are getting stricter and policy is constantly tackling the said ‘marriages of convenience’.
Despite the move forwards of family law, nationality law and access to territory are moving backwards - is that an effect of the continuity and the discontinuity of law? What are the consequences of these evolutions taking opposite directions? Is family law evolving too fast and undeniably leading to a decline in the other corpus of law? Could such opposite evolutions jeopardize certain rights that we thought were vested? These questions will be addressed in the present analysis. For the purpose of this work, a step back in time is inevitable. Focusing on marital links and filiations, we will therefore study the evolution of the law in these matters. However, the emphasis will be on two particularly topical issues: the so-called ‘marriages of conveniences’ and, in matters of filiations, ‘fraudulent recognitions’.