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

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.

Keywords:

• fertility
• partnerships
• multistate event history analysis
• immigrants
• descendants
• United Kingdom

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Please direct all correspondence to Júlia Mikolai, University of St Andrews, School of Geography and Sustainable Development, Irvine Building, North Street, St Andrews, KY16 9AL, United Kingdom; or by Email: [email protected]

2 This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 834103). We are grateful for the opportunity to use data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study, hosted and managed by the UK Data Service.