Partner Choice and Economic Outcomes among the Children of Immigrants

Abstract

Several studies have shown that immigrants marrying natives experience better economic outcomes than those marrying other immigrants, but we know less about partner choice and the economic outcomes of the children of immigrants and among those forming cohabiting unions. Utilizing Norwegian register data from all cohabiting and marital unions formed between 2006 and 2018 involving second-generation and childhood immigrants ( N = 49,692 couples, 65% cohabiting), we explored how partner choice relates to employment status, individual income, and household income for up to 14 years after union formation. Overall, children of immigrants with native partners were more frequently employed and earned higher incomes than those who chose partners from migrant-backgrounds. Fixed effects model results confirmed that children of immigrants who partnered endogamously experienced less favorable employment and individual income trajectories compared to those partnering with natives. We discovered similar negative impacts on the likelihood of employment and on the individual incomes of men who partnered exogamously with migrant-background women. However, when ignoring initial selection and shifting focus solely to changes post-union formation, we found that partnering endogamously had a positive effect on household income. In general, we observed the strongest effects among women and those married, and we noticed important differences across global regions of origin.

Migration, Partner Selection, and Fertility in Germany: How Many Children are Born in Mixed Unions?

“…Classical assimilation theory assumes that exogamous union formation is the final stage in the assimilation processes of migrant groups (Gordon, 1964 ). Indeed, cultural (e.g., understanding of the host country’s language, but also its values and norms) and structural assimilation (in socio-economic traits like education and income) may contribute to exogamous union formation among migrants and their descendants (Dribe & Lundh, 2008 , 2011 ; Furtado & Song, 2015 ; Wiik & Bergsvik, 2023 ). The link between migrant assimilation and exogamy may have implications for couples’ fertility.…”

“…Consequently, higher educated migrants and migrant descendants are more likely to adjust their fertility values and norms to those of the majority group. As higher educated migrant (descendant) women and men rather intermarry (Dribe & Lundh, 2008 ; González-Ferrer, 2006 ; Wiik & Bergsvik, 2023 ), exogamous couples’ fertility behaviour may be similar to that of endogamous natives, independent of the makeup of the exogamous union (i.e., whether the woman or the man belongs to a migrant group).…”

“…The higher education levels among migrants and migrant descendants in exogamous unions help to explain why they have more favourable labour market positions than their counterparts in endogamous unions (denoted as “intermarriage premium”) (Furtado & Song, 2015 ; Wiik & Bergsvik, 2023 ). Given the intermarriage premium, opportunity costs should affect the realisation of fertility preferences among exogamous unions in a manner similar to that among endogamous natives.…”