First comes marriage or first comes carriage? family trajectories for immigrants in Germany

Immigrants bring contemporary demographic changes to the destination country by their contribution to diversity, and future population changes by their unique partnership and fertility patterns. In this study, we examine the partnership and fertility trajectories for immigrants born between 1970 and 1999 from a life course perspective applying event history techniques to the German Socio-economic Panel Survey (GSOEP). By treating first entrance into cohabitation, marriage, and parenthood as competing events, we illuminate not only the differences between natives and immigrants but also highlight the heterogeneity among immigrant groups in family formation pathways. Controlling for cohort effects and socioeconomic conditions, individuals with Turkish background continue to stand out with an earlier and higher level of entrance into marriage and parenthood. The risk of non-marital or pre-marital childbearing is lower for immigrants than German natives, especially for Turkish Germans. Marriage remains important to individuals of immigrant backgrounds, despite growing levels of cohabitation and non-marital childbearing in the recent years.