Ethnic intermarriage among immigrants: human capital and assortative mating

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. A binomial logistic regression is estimated using data from the 1980 US Census, the last Census where post-migration marriages can be identified. Results show that the probability of intermarriage increases the longer a migrant resides in the U.S. and the younger the age at arrival. Both relationships can be attributable to the accumulation of US-specific human capital and an erosion of ethnic-specific human capital. Inter-ethnic marriages are more likely between individuals with similar education levels, providing evidence of positive assortative mating by education for immigrants. Construction of the availability ratio for potential spouses and group size are unique to this study, providing a more accurate measure of the marriage market by using data from several Censuses. Intermarriage is lower the greater the availability ratio and the larger the size of the group. Linguistic distance indirectly measures the effect of English language ability at arrival and is found to be a significant negative predictor of intermarriage. Those who report multiple ancestries and who were previously married are more likely to intermarry. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E SJEL Classification: J12, J15, J61, F22

Cultural Integration in Germany

“…The exception here are Spanish and Italian immigrants. 19 Compared to natives, estimates presented in Table 14 and the corresponding Figures show that for women there is no statistically significant difference in the probability to be married before the age of 25 between Germans and second generation immigrants; Turkish women being an exception. In contrast, first generation immigrants seem to be more likely to be married young compared to natives.…”

Intermarriage and the economic success of immigrants

“…Evidence-based policy making intermarriage for immigrants" [3]. Results are similar for Belgium and the Netherlands.…”

“…But there are search costs related to the availability of potential spouses with these characteristics. So, even if everybody has the same preferences, some will be willing to exchange similarities in ethnicity for similarities in education if there is too little supply of potential partners with the same ethnic background [3].…”

“…In this sense, going to college is an "eyeopening experience" that may diminish immigrants' preferences for marrying co-ethnics or within their own racial group [5]. Better educated immigrants are more likely to find a partner with a similar education level than with the same ethnic background-as a study of second-generation immigrants in the US shows [3]. Thus, "positive assortative matching by education" (having a spouse with a very similar education level) is more prominent among intermarried immigrants than for nonintermarried immigrants.…”

“…Better education often goes hand in hand with better host-country language abilities [3], facilitating communication with natives. Socializing becomes easier the closer the home and host country language are.…”