Search

In China, a critical challenge for rural-to-urban migrants planning to settle down is to convert their rural hukou (household registration) to an urban one through a limited set of de jure channels. This study argues that marriage is a key channel that some migrants take, notably for female migrants. Using data from the 2010 Chinese General Social Survey, we analyzed how educational and age disparities between female rural-to-urban migrants and their husbands relate to urban hukou conversion. We found that the rural women who used marriage as the means to hukou conversion were more likely to marry someone less educated and much older. The findings suggest that rural women can realize their geographical and social mobility by a strategic response to the residence policy, which may in turn impact the dynamics of gender inequality in the household. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seeking to overcome the heterosexual bias in marriage-migration scholarship and move beyond individualistic approaches to queer mobility, this article focuses on the lives of same-sex couples that hold unequal residence statuses. In a twofold context marked by the increasing legal recognition of same-sex families combined with heightened hurdles facing certain categories of immigrants, we examine what those simultaneous trends mean for these couples. Based on 42 interviews conducted in France, the Netherlands and the United States with people from a variety of class backgrounds, we show how higher resource levels moderate the impact of constraining legal frameworks without suppressing them. We distinguish between low-resource homogamous, heterogamous, and high-resource homogamous couples. The first configuration often results in forced immobility and separation. In heterogamous couples, conjugality becomes a major pathway to legal status for the migrant spouse – potentially feeding suspicions of instrumentality. In contrast, privileged migrants in a homogamous couple tend to relate to law in less of a binary way and experience regulations as more easily surmountable. Yet, for them, securing permanent residence represents but one objective among several (including their careers and studies), an investment often disconnected from their matrimonial relationship and at times in competition with it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines patterns of homogamy and heterogamy and their implications for couple’s fertility behaviour. Data were obtained from demographic and health surveys conducted in Ghana, Nigeria and Zambia between 2001 and 2014. The study population were couples in a monogamous union where wives were aged 35 years and over: 1785 in Ghana, 3185 in Nigeria and 3175 in Zambia. Results of the descriptive analysis show that educational, religious and ethnic homogamy and occupational heterogamy were predominant among the couples and mean children ever born varied according to couples’ characteristics. The significant predictors of fertility as revealed in the multivariate analysis included educational homogamy and heterogamy, occupational homogamy, age difference and religious and ethnic homogamy. To expedite fertility transition in the three countries and other sub-Saharan African countries, programmes and policies aimed at reducing fertility in the region should incorporate strategies that focus on the characteristics of couples in union. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Past research on religious homogamy has struggled to distinguish whether religiosity or homogamy has a stronger impact on preventing a marital dissolution. To rectify this problem, I use a latent class approach to compare couples with various forms of partner religiosity and similarity. Based on 707 newlywed couples from the Marriage Matters survey (1998–2004), I discovered four latent classes: “holy” couples (both partners are highly religious), “nonattending” couples (both partners identify as religious but don’t regularly attend services), “unbalanced” couples (the wife is religious but the husband is not), and “secular” couples (both partners are not religious). Findings indicate that holy, nonattending, and unbalanced couples experience less odds of divorce compared with secular couples, suggesting that religiosity in a variety of forms is more important than partner similarity in avoiding divorce. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Interracial couples continue to grow in numbers, though there has been little research aimed to understand the experiences and unique challenges of this population. Among these challenges are stressors associated with the interplay between cultural differences and similarities. In this paper, we present an intervention called the visible invisible grid, that can be used to help interracial and intercultural couples discuss their invisible and visible differences and similarities. To illustrate the intervention, a case example is provided along with contraindications and clinical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A common stereotype holds that in Mexico male violence toward women is common among indigenous peoples and reflects cultural norms that sanction a male's domination of his female partner. We employ a recent Mexican survey to examine the relative risk of violence against women as a function of the couple's ethnic homogamy. Among couples in which both partners are either non-indigenous or indigenous the female's risk of partner violence is similar. Among heterogamous couples non-indigenous females in relationships in which the male is indigenous are at elevated risk of violence, while indigenous women in relationships with non-indigenous males are at a lower risk of violence. The stresses associated with heterogamy appear to be more salient in determining a woman's risk of violence than ethnicity per se. The implications for future research and the need to deal with the issue of ethnic homogamy in culturally heterogeneous populations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A textbook hypothesis about divorce is that heterogamous marriages are more likely to end in divorce than homogamous marriages. We analyse vital statistics on the population of the Netherlands, which provide a unique and powerful opportunity to test this hypothesis. All marriages formed between 1974 and 1984 (nearly 1 million marriages) are traced in the divorce records and multivariate logistic regression models are used to analyse the effects on divorce of heterogamy in religion and national origin. Our analyses confirm the hypothesis for marriages that cross the Protestant-Catholic or the Jewish-Gentile boundary. Heterogamy effects are weaker for marriages involving Protestants or unaffiliated persons. Marriages between Dutch and other nationalities have a higher risk of divorce, the more so the greater the cultural differences between the two groups. Overall, the evidence supports the view that, in the Netherlands, new group boundaries are more difficult to cross than old group boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]