The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Portrait Annika Elwert. Photo: Emma Lord.

Annika Elwert

Associate senior lecturer

Portrait Annika Elwert. Photo: Emma Lord.

Opposites Attract – Evidence of Status Exchange in Ethnic Intermarriages in Sweden

Author

  • Annika Elwert

Summary, in English

This study raises the question of how marriage market relevant status characteristics are distributed among partners in exogamous relationships. The status exchange hypothesis posits that partners in racially and ethnically heterogamous relationships trade status characteristics, mainly education. We address this hypothesis focusing on intermarriages between immigrants and native men (N=606,257) and women (N=600,165) in Sweden using register data covering the entire Swedish population for the period 1990 to 2009. Results from binomial and multinomial logistic regressions show that low status in terms of age, income, and previous relationships are determinants for exogamy, and that the main marriage market relevant status that is exchanged is age, not education. This holds particularly for immigrants from certain countries of origin such as for wives from Asia and Africa and husbands from Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Swedish men and women show surprisingly large symmetry in status exchange patterns.

Department/s

  • Centre for Economic Demography
  • Department of Economic History

Publishing year

2016

Language

English

Publication/Series

Lund Papers in Economic History. Population Economics

Issue

2016:147

Document type

Working paper

Topic

  • Economic History

Keywords

  • Interethnic marriage
  • Immigration/Migrant families
  • Ethnicity
  • Western European families
  • J12
  • J15
  • Z13

Status

Published