HC Deb 28 October 1982 vol 29 c541W
Mr. George Cunningham

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department which European and Commonwealth countries confer a legal right, as against a discretion, to spouses of residents or citizens of both sexes to enter and settle in that country.

Mr. Raison

Our information is limited, but, as we understand it, a majority of the dozen or so European and Commonwealth countries whose practice we investigated give no legal right to husbands to join wives resident there. Almost all accepted wives, but we cannot say whether they did so as a matter of entitlement or discretion.