Expectations for family transitions in young adulthood among the UK second generation

Abstract

This paper explores whether family transitions among descendants of post second-world-war immigrants are converging towards those of white British young adults by examining family formation expectations among 16-21 year-olds collected within the 2009-2015 waves of Understanding Society. The paper asks: Do current adolescents' cohabitation, marriage and parenthood expectations differ by ethnic group? Are differences similar for men and women? Are ethnic differences mediated by individual or parental socio-economic characteristics? We find that expectations for marriage and parenthood are unanimously high, but that there is greater uncertainty among white British and black Caribbean adolescents as to the age at which these transitions will occur. We find large ethnic differences in expectations for cohabitation, especially for women. There is evidence for a divergence in expectations within the south-Asian community. Secondgeneration Indians have lower expectations for marriage and higher expectations for cohabitation than second-generation Bangladeshis or Pakistanis. Ethnic group differences remain when religiosity, parental background and individual characteristics are controlled. Further research is required regarding the mechanisms which underlie the differential transmission of family formation attitudes across ethnic minority groups.

A decade of life-course research on fertility of immigrants and their descendants in Europe

“…Foner (1997) calls this process "bicultural adjustment." Previous literature tends to portray the second generation as being "exposed to competing pressures" (Berrington 2018;Kalmijn and Kraaykamp 2018) based on the assumption that the family of origin has more conservative values than the majority group in the destination country.…”

“…Recently, Wilson and Kuha (2018) also report high fertility among the descendants of Pakistani and Bangladeshi immigrants, which they attributed to the factors related to childhood socialisation in residentially segregated ethnic communities. Berrington (2018) shows that among the 1960-1979 cohorts who were born in the United Kingdom, 73% of Pakistani women and 85% of Bangladeshi women had become mothers by age 30, as compared with only 60% of white British women. The results also suggest a significant delay and less ethnic diversity in the timing of entry into motherhood among more recent cohorts.…”

“…In the second and third generations, marriage and marital childbearing may be rather an indicator of cultural maintenance, at least in the cases where no transnational marriage-migration is involved. Some groups (e.g., UK-born Pakistanis and Bangladeshis in the United Kingdom) continue to marry someone from overseas and hence migration remains associated with marriage (see Berrington 2018). Moreover, the ethnicity of the partner (endogamy versus a mixed marriage) may be crucial for fertility behaviour (Milewski 2010b, van Landschoot et al 2017.…”

Understanding How Immigrant Fertility Differentials Vary over the Reproductive Life Course

“…One possible explanation for this result relates to the higher prevalence of marriage at young adult ages among Bangladeshis as compared to the UK-born population, which may in turn be linked to marriage migration or family reunification for a number of women (Berrington 1994). Similarly, although marriage is not more prevalent among immigrants from the Caribbean, there is a higher prevalence of cohabitation and childbearing prior to marriage (Berrington 1994(Berrington , 2018.…”

“…This result may be indicative of preferences for larger families, although there is evidence to suggest that structural factors may be more important for explaining differences between South Asians. Evidence based on ethnicity suggests that Indian women are more likely than Pakistani or Bangladeshi women to postpone marriage and childbearing, in part because they spend longer in full time education and are more likely to be employed (Berrington 1994(Berrington , 2018Dale et al 2002). Moreover, for many Pakistani first-and second-generation women, early childbearing may be a strategic choice, determined by a 'complex interplay of relationships between individuals, couples, and wider families' (Hampshire et al 2012, p.39).…”