Disruption of Family Lives in the Course of Migration: ‘Tied Migrants’ and Partnership Breakup Patterns Among German (R)emigrants

Abstract

The chapter focuses on partnership dissolution in the course of international migration. Rather than studying mobility outcomes following the dissolution of a partnership, we ask under which conditions international migration increases the risk of separation among couples. Our analysis includes individuals in marital and non-marital relationships who leave Germany and move to another country or re-migrate back to Germany. Based on the first two waves of the German Emigration and Remigration Panel Study (GERPS), our logistic regression estimations show that non-egalitarian, non-synchronised migration patterns are important predictors of union dissolution for male and female emigrants and remigrants. Until now, the role of family migration on the subsequent stability of a union has been largely underexplored, and this chapter contributes to closing this research gap.

International migration and its short‐term effect on partnership stability

“…This might be investigated in future studies, making use of, for example, the frequency or mode of contact to people living in the location of origin. The finding that migrants living together with their partners have a lower risk of union dissolution, combined with Baykara‐Krumme et al's (2021) finding that couples who did not migrate together at the same time have a higher risk of union dissolution, hints that reunification might increase partnership stability compared to a continuing transnational partnership. In sum, although this analysis allows some inferences about the potential mechanisms behind the effect of migration on partnership stability, it is of an explorative nature and does not allow for clear identification of the exact drivers of the effect.…”

“…Similarly, an earlier study found elevated risks of union dissolution for female Puerto Rican emigrants compared to nonmigrants but not for remigrants (Landale & Ogena, 1995). In contrast, recently, higher risk of union dissolution was found for German remigrants compared to emigrants, but no comparison to German nonmigrants was conducted (Baykara‐Krumme et al, 2021).…”

“…Besides the general effect, several migration characteristics have been found to affect the risk of union dissolution. These include the length of geographic separation when assessing individual's migration (Davis & Jennings, 2018; Frank & Wildsmith, 2005), its direction (rural–urban or different destinations) (Boyle et al, 2008; Davis & Jennings, 2018), the prevalence of migration at the community level (Frank & Wildsmith, 2005), as well as the migration decision and whether both partners moved at the same time or not (Baykara‐Krumme et al, 2021). Referring to the migration characteristics of analysis in this study, multiple (internal) migrations were found to increase the risk of union dissolution (Boyle et al, 2008; Muszynska & Kulu, 2007; Shapira et al, 2019).…”

“…Overall, although general determinants of partnership stability have been researched quite intensively, empirical studies of the effect of migration are sparse and existing literature tends to assess either internal migration or international migration in the Latin American–US context. With the exception of Baykara‐Krumme et al (2021), no studies on partnership stability of international migrants from highly industrialized welfare states could be found. Such literature, however, is required, given that about one‐fourth of global movement is due to migrants from the Global North (Gilles, 2019) and existing findings from other contexts cannot, for several reasons, be assumed to generalize (see argumentation in the introductory chapter).…”

“…The stress associated with migration may increase if migration leads to or enhances differences between the two partners. One such difference is enthusiasm about the situation after migration, which may be particularly important in cases of tied migration (Baykara-Krumme et al, 2021). For example, partners may have disagreed or not shared a strong desire to migrate before the move (Coulter et al, 2012), or one partner might miss the previous home or be unhappy in the couple's new situation (Flowerdew & Al-Hamad, 2004).…”