Trends in fertility and intermarriage among immigrant populations in Western Europe as measures of integration

Abstract

SummaryDemographic data on fertility and intermarriage are useful measures of integration and assimilation. This paper reviews trends in total fertility and intermarriage of foreign populations in Europe and compares them with the trends in fertility of the host population and the sending country. In almost all cases fertility has declined. The fertility of most European immigrant populations and of some West Indian and non-Muslim Asian populations has declined to a period level at or below that of the host society. Muslim populations from Turkey, North Africa and South Asia have shown the least decline. Intermarriage is proceeding faster than might be expected in immigrant populations which seemed in economic terms to be imperfectly integrated. Up to 40% of West Indians born in the UK, for example, appear to have white partners as do high proportions of young Maghrebians in France.

Immigració, unions mixtes i integració sociocultural: cap a una anàlisi complexa multimètode

“…Les unions mixtes s'han vist tradicionalment com un indicador clau (l'úl-tima fase) de la integració social o fins i tot de l'assimilació dels immigrants i les minories ètniques a la societat en general, perquè aquest tipus d'unions es pensa que faciliten l'assentament dels immigrants en la societat d'acollida, una major interacció i l'expansió de les seves xarxes socials, la permeabilitat de les fronteres socials i la disminució de la distància social, l'adquisició de capital social i l'erosió de les identitats ètniques i els prejudicis culturals (Resnik, 1933;Gordon, 1964;Alba i Kessler, 1979;Lieberson i Waters, 1988;Pagnini i Morgan 1990;Coleman, 1994;Rumbaut, 1997;Kalmijn, 1998;Qian i Litcher, 2001). Altres autors han qüestionat aquesta relació directa o sense matisos entre mixicitat i integració social i n'han emfasitzat la complexitat (Marcson, 1950;Lievens, 1999;Fu, 2001;Rodríguez-García, 2002, 2004a, 2004bSafi, 2006Safi, , 2008Santacreu i Francés, 2008;Song, 2009Song, , 2010Sánchez Domínguez, 2011;Ward 2013).…”

The Family in Question : Immigrant and Ethnic Minorities in Multicultural Europe

“…The 'straightline' assimilation perspective, widely adopted by anthropologists, sociologists, and demographers since the 1950s (Banton 1955;Gordon 1964), has argued for assimilation as a 'single final destination' (Todd 1994). In this context, endogamy has been interpreted as a 'traditional behaviour,' an 'act of defensive structuring,' or an 'anti-integratory' element that limits pluri-ethnic integration and maintains differencesas opposed to exogamy, which causes them to disappear (Coleman 1994). Métissage has frequently been used as a synonym for a society without differences, as traditionally, exogamy has been treated as one of the direct indicators of the integration or assimilation of the immigrant population, presupposing that it implies the absence of ethnic and racial prejudices and that it is the last step in a series of cultural and structural assimilations.…”

Introduction to research on immigrant and ethnic minority families in Europe

“…The first examines determinants of inter-ethnic marriage among immigrants and their descendants (Alba and Golden 1986;Bagley 1972;Berrington 1994;Coleman 1994;Kalmijn 1998;Pagnini and Morgan 1990), and the second investigates childbearing patterns (Dinkel and Lebok 1997;Schoorl 1990). While both research streams have a long tradition, the increased availability of individual-level longitudinal data in the past two decades has boosted research activity in these areas and significantly enhanced our understanding of immigrant and ethnic minority family behaviour (Andersson 2004;González-Ferrer 2006;Milewski 2007;Singley and Landale 1998).…”

“…Family patterns of immigrants and ethnic minorities provide another perspective on their integration or the lack of it; family lives are also interwoven with both structural and cultural dimensions of the integration process. Further, research has argued that the prevalence of inter-ethnic marriages is the ultimate litmus test of immigrant integration in a society (Coleman 1994;Feng et al 2012;Kalmijn 1998). The spread of mixed marriages can be seen as a signal that there are no (more) borders between groups that cannot be crossed in society, leaving a free choice in the marriage market for both majority and ethnic minority populations.…”