Migrants in Interethnic Partnerships: Between Preferences and Structural Opportunities

Anne-Kristin Kuhnt , University of Rostock
Monika Obersneider, University of Duisburg-Essen

This paper examines individual characteristics of migrants in interethnic partnerships living in Germany. Our analyses examine key characteristics extracted from the partner market theory (e.g. region, religion, marital status, ethnicity) and compare them for interethnic (migrant-native) versus intraethnic (migrant-migrant) couples. This will allow us to learn more about the role of cultural boundaries in the social integration processes of different migrant groups. We go beyond recent research by (1) focusing on a comparison of Turkish and ethnic German immigrants (i.e. returning migrants from ethnic German communities from predominantly Eastern European countries), the two largest migrant groups in Germany, and (2) including religion, marital status, and spatial perspectives (size of residence, East-West) in our analyses, three perspectives that are often missing in recent research. Our empirical analyses are based on migrant adults aged 14 to 48 (N = 1,098). In a first step, we present descriptive findings on the prevalence of interethnic partnerships in our sample. In a second step, we estimate the outcome variable (migrants in inter-ethnic vs. intra-ethnic partnerships) of cross-sectional regression analyses. The models focus on compositional differences between immigrant groups with respect to size and location (East-West) of residence, education, migrant status, ethnicity, religiosity, gender, relationship status, and age. Our findings support the theoretical elaborations of Blau (1994) and Kalmijn (1998) on interethnic partner markets: preferences and structural opportunities characterise migrants in interethnic partnerships. However, the findings for women and men suggest further gender differences in the characteristics of migrants in interethnic partnerships.

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 Presented in Session P1. Fertility, Family, Life Course