Partnership Living Arrangements of Immigrants and Natives in Germany

Abstract

This paper compares the partnership arrangements of Turkish and Ethnic German immigrants (i.e., return migrants from Ethnic German communities from predominantly Eastern European countries), the two largest migrant groups in Germany, and native Germans. Most existing analyses of migrants' partnerships focus on intermarriage, marriage formation, or union dissolution. We know only a little, however, about the prevalence of non-marital living arrangements. Given that single person households and cohabitation are widespread phenomena mainly in post-materialist societies, analyzing whether immigrants engage in these behaviors sheds light on potential adaptation processes. The analyses are based on the German Microcensus of the years 2009 and 2013, with a focus on adults in the 18–40 age group. First, we present descriptive findings on the prevalence of partnership arrangements of immigrants and native Germans. Second, we estimate cross-sectional regressions with the partnership arrangement as the outcome variable in order to control for compositional differences between immigrant groups with respect to education. Our results show that while the vast majority of first-generation immigrants are married, the share of married natives is considerably smaller. Living in an independent household without a partner and cohabitation are rare phenomena among immigrants. By contrast, about one in seven natives is cohabiting and more than one quarter is living in an independent household without a partner. The most prevalent partnership living arrangement of the Turkish second generation is living in the parental household without a partner. These results are robust after controlling for education, age, and year in the multiple regression analysis.

Partnership and fertility trajectories of immigrants and descendants in the United Kingdom: A multilevel multistate event history approach

“…First, immigrants from countries with conservative partnership patterns show high marriage rates and low cohabitation and separation rates (Kulu and Hannemann 2016a ). These patterns have been observed in Sweden for immigrants and descendants from the Middle East, Iran, Turkey, and Southeast Asia (Andersson et al 2015 ); in Germany for Turkish and ethnic German immigrants (Kuhnt and Krapf 2020 ); and in France for Turkish and North African immigrants (Pailhé 2015 ). Interestingly, in Sweden, some of these groups exhibited higher rates of divorce and remarriage than native Swedes (Andersson et al 2015 ).…”

“…Previous studies on the partnership experiences of immigrants have investigated the timing and type of union formation and dissolution, comparing the experiences of the first and second generation with those of the native population across several industrialized countries. Most studies have focused on marriage and divorce, but some have also explored cohabitation, separation, and repartnering (Andersson et al 2015 ; Pailhé 2015 ; González-Ferrer et al 2016 ; Kulu and Hannemann 2016a ; Kuhnt and Krapf 2020 ).…”

On the Timing of Marriage and Childbearing: Family Formation Pathways Among Immigrants in Switzerland

“…EU migrants in Europe) have family patterns similar to those of the natives, including a higher propensity to cohabit before marriage or a first birth. By contrast, immigrants from more conservative countries often follow a path of direct marriage and have larger families (see Andersson et al, 2015 for Sweden; Delaporte & Kulu, 2022 , Pailhé, 2015 for France; Kuhnt & Krapf, 2020 , Liu & Kulu, 2021 for Germany; Mikolai & Kulu, 2022 for the UK).…”