Heterogeneity or disadvantage? Partnership, childbearing, and employment trajectories of the descendants of immigrants in the United Kingdom

We investigate how partnership, fertility, and employment changes interact in the lives of immigrants’ descendants in the UK. Although these domains are intertwined in individuals’ lives, most studies on migrants and minorities have examined them separately. We apply multi-channel sequence analysis to data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study to establish the main types of joint partnership, fertility, and employment trajectories among the native population and the descendants of immigrants (i.e., 1.5 and second generation). We analyse women and men separately. We find first that the descendants of European/Western immigrants exhibit family and employment trajectories similar to those of the native British population. Second, the descendants of Caribbean immigrants have diverse partnership and fertility patterns, but their employment outcomes are similar or even better compared to those of native women and men. Third, among women of South Asian descent, conservative partnership and family formation patterns are coupled with low labour market attachment. It is not the heterogeneity in partnership and family formation patterns which poses a challenge, rather that these patterns co-exist with low labour market participation. This is likely to have serious long-term implications for the wellbeing of second-generation women.