A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE ON INTERMARRIAGE: EXPLAINING DIFFERENCES AMONG NATIONAL-ORIGIN GROUPS IN THE UNITED STATES

Little is known about the validity of group-level theories of ethnic intermarriage despite the fact that such theories are often invoked in explaining why certain ethnic groups are "closed, "whereas others are relatively "open. "We develop a comparative perspective by analyzing t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inDemography Vol. 47; no. 2; pp. 459 - 479
Main Authors KALMIJN, MATTHIJS, VAN TUBERGEN, FRANK
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Population Association of America 01.05.2010
Springer-Verlag
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Borders
Boundaries
Choice Behavior
Choices
Christianity
Comparative analysis
Comparative studies
Countries
Cultural differences
Cultural factors
Cultural groups
Demography
Endogamy
Ethnic groups
Female
Generations
Geography
Globalization
Group size
Humans
Immigrants
Intermarriage
Logistic Models
Male
Marriage
Marriage - ethnology
Medicine/Public Health
Men
Minority & ethnic groups
Multilevel models
Multivariate Analysis
Noncitizens
North Amerindians
Population Economics
Race Relations
Sex ratio
Social anthropology
Social Sciences
Social Values
Sociology
Studies
U.S.A
United States
United States of America
United States
United States > US
Ethnic Identity
Interracial Marriage
Current Population Survey
Origin Group
National Origin
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Summary:Little is known about the validity of group-level theories of ethnic intermarriage despite the fact that such theories are often invoked in explaining why certain ethnic groups are "closed, "whereas others are relatively "open. "We develop a comparative perspective by analyzing the marriage choices of 94 national-origin groups in the United States, using pooled data from the Current Population Surveys, 1994-2006, and multilevel models in which individual and contextual determinants of intermarriage are included simultaneously. Our analyses show large differences in endogamy across groups. After taking compositional effects into account, we find that both structural and cultural group-level factors have significant effects on endogamy. Cultural explanations (which focus on the role of norms and preferences) play a more important role than structural explanations (which focus on meeting and mating opportunities). Our results reinforce the common but untested interpretation of endogamy in terms of group boundaries.
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Earlier versions of this article were presented at the Colloquium of the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) of the University of Essex, March 10, 2008; and at the EAPS conference on The Second Demographic Transition in Europe, Budapest, September 8, 2007.
ISSN:0070-3370
1533-7790
DOI:10.1353/dem.0.0103