Union formation and assortative mating of foreign population in Spain

Clara Cortina, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Albert Esteve, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Andreu Domingo, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

The dramatic growth of international immigration in Spain during the last decade has considerably increased the number of unions concerning foreigners. Within this context, we study foreigners’ union formation and the characteristics of the partners of those unions with at least one member born abroad or/and with foreign citizenship. The study has two main purposes: first, we describe the differences of intermarriage patterns between national origins. Second, based on these differences, we identify strategies of integration in marriage markets according to the sex, educational attainment, national origin of the partners, and to the type of union (marriage or consensual union). We use census microdata from the 2001 Spanish population census, taking the couple as unit of analysis, which allows us to compare partners characteristics.