Partnership and fertility trajectories of immigrants and their descendants in the United Kingdom: a multilevel multistate event history approach

Julia Mikolai*, Hill Kulu

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We study the interrelationships between partnership and fertility trajectories of immigrant women and female descendants of immigrants using the UK Household Longitudinal Study. We propose a novel multistate event history approach to analyse the outcomes of unpartnered, cohabiting, and married women. We find that the partnership and fertility behaviours of immigrants and descendants from European and Western countries are similar to those of native women: many cohabit first and then have children and/or marry. Those from countries with conservative family behaviours (e.g. South Asian countries) marry first and then have children. Women from the Caribbean show the weakest link between partnership changes and fertility: some have births outside unions; some form a union and have children thereafter. Family patterns have remained relatively stable across migrant generations and birth cohorts, although marriage is being postponed in all groups. Our findings on immigrants support the socialization hypothesis, whereas those on descendants are in line with the minority subculture hypothesis.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)359-378
Number of pages20
JournalPopulation Studies
Volume77
Issue number3
Early online date22 Nov 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2023

Keywords

  • Fertility
  • Partnerships
  • Multistate event history analysis
  • Immigrants
  • Descendants
  • United Kingdom

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