The timing of critical life events among descendants of immigrants in Sweden: which comes first, homeownership, marriage, or childbirth?

There is a large amount of literature about immigrant housing careers and family formation, but most studies investigate these related life domains separately. In this study we examine entry to first-time homeownership, marriage, and parenthood by immigrant generation and origin in Sweden. The focus is on immigrants arriving in Sweden before the age of 18 (1.5G) and on the descendants of immigrants with two (2G) or one (2.5G) immigrant parent(s). We investigate which of these critical life events happen first in order to understand the factors that shape the family lives and housing careers of individuals with a migrant family background. We use individual-level register data from Sweden over a period of 20 years (1997-2016) and apply competing risks event history analysis. Results show the importance of owning a home before marriage or becoming a parent. The native population, all 2.5G, and certain 1.5G and 2G groups (e.g., Nordic, Western and Southern Europe, Latin America) showed a high risk of homeownership, followed by childbirth and then marriage, whereas 1.5G and 2G groups from conservative family cultures (e.g., Turkey, Ex-Yugoslavia, Iran, Middle East/North Africa, South Asia) exhibited a high propensity for marriage formation. Results also show that generations with more extensive exposure to the Swedish context were more similar in their behaviour to that of the native Swedish population.