Union formation of the children of immigrants: Does the ethnic composition of the childhood neighbourhood matter?

Abstract

This paper examines whether first union formation behaviour of children of immigrants varies according to the ethnic composition of the neighbourhood in which they grew up. Growing up surrounded by large shares of majority‐group members may influence union formation behaviour of children of immigrants in later life. However, the local residential contexts during childhood have been overlooked in previous studies. Using full‐population data from Dutch registers, we estimate multinomial event‐history models to examine the timing and type of first union (direct marriage or unmarried cohabitation) as a function of the proportion of majority‐group residents in the neighbourhood at age 15. We focus on Turkish, Moroccan, and Surinamese second‐generation individuals born in the Netherlands between 1986 and 1990, follow their union formation into young adulthood and compare it to that of their Dutch peers. We find limited support for the influence of the childhood neighbourhood's ethnic composition on union formation; moreover, this influence seems to vary across origin groups.