Volume 35 - Article 1 | Pages 1–30  

Partnership formation and dissolution among immigrants in the Spanish context

By Amparo González-Ferrer, Tina Hannemann, Teresa Castro Martín

This article is part of the Special Collection 18 „Partnership dynamics among immigrants and their descendants in Europe“

Abstract

Background: The diversification of partnership patterns away from the traditional marriage standard emerged in Spain relatively late. This makes Spain an interesting case for the study of the partnership dynamics of natives and immigrant groups.

Objective: This paper analyzes partnership formation and dissolution among immigrant women of various origins, in comparison to natives in Spain. The study aims to identify variations in timing and incidence of partnership transitions.

Methods: Data from the Fertility and Values Survey 2006 is used to conduct discrete-time logistic regressions for several union transitions. In a further step, the data are analyzed including cohort interactions to explore the extent to which differences are due to the younger profile of the migrant population.

Results: The obtained results lend support to the selection and disruption hypotheses in the case of immigrant women who arrived in Spain before their first union formation. However, when explaining the high propensity of Latin American and EU-15 women to enter cohabiting unions, socialization effects cannot be ruled out. Immigrant women also show higher risk of union dissolution than natives.

Conclusions: Immigrant women differ consistently from native Spanish women across the various partnership transitions. They generally display higher risks of forming a union, particularly a cohabiting union, and of separating from their first partner. Models including interactions between birth cohort and migrant status showed that differentials between immigrants and natives are not due to compositional effects.

Author’s Affiliation

• Amparo González-Ferrer - Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Spain EMAIL
• Tina Hannemann - University of Manchester, United Kingdom EMAIL
• Teresa Castro Martín - Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Spain EMAIL

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

Co-ethnic marriage versus intermarriage among immigrants and their descendants: A comparison across seven European countries using event-history analysis
Volume 39 - Article 17

Mixed marriages between immigrants and natives in Spain: The gendered effect of marriage market constraints
Volume 39 - Article 1

Social policies, separation, and second birth spacing in Western Europe
Volume 37 - Article 37

Childbearing patterns among immigrant women and their daughters in Spain: Over-adaptation or structural constraints
Volume 37 - Article 19

A decade of life-course research on fertility of immigrants and their descendants in Europe
Volume 40 - Article 46

Change and continuity in the fertility of unpartnered women in Latin America, 1980–2010
Volume 38 - Article 51

Why does fertility remain high among certain UK-born ethnic minority women?
Volume 35 - Article 49

What drives Senegalese migration to Europe? The role of economic restructuring, labor demand, and the multiplier effect of networks
Volume 35 - Article 13

Introduction to research on immigrant and ethnic minority families in Europe
Volume 35 - Article 2

The contributions of childbearing within marriage and within consensual union to fertility in Latin America, 1980-2010
Volume 34 - Article 29

Union formation and dissolution among immigrants and their descendants in the United Kingdom
Volume 33 - Article 10

The reproductive context of cohabitation in comparative perspective: Contraceptive use in the United States, Spain, and France
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Sampling international migrants with origin-based snowballing method: New evidence on biases and limitations
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Is Latin America starting to retreat from early and universal childbearing?
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Volume 19 - Article 41

Not truly partnerless: Non-residential partnerships and retreat from marriage in Spain
Volume 18 - Article 16

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