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Temporal Connections between Migration, Marriage, and Non-Marital Unions among Hispanic Immigrant Women in the United States: An Analysis of Competing Risks

Zohra Ansari-Thomas, University of Pennsylvania

The purpose of this study is to examine the likelihood of union formation relative to timing of migration among female Hispanic immigrants in the U.S., treating marriage and cohabitation as competing risks. I used data from the National Survey of Family Growth (2011-2017) to analyze a sample of 715 Hispanic women who migrated to the U.S. as adults. Cox proportional hazards models were used to examine the likelihood of marriage alone in the years prior to and following migration. Competing risk survival models were then used to examine the likelihood of marriage and cohabitation as competing events before and after migration. I found that the likelihood of marriage is highest the year of and the two years following migration. However, when treating marriage and cohabitation as competing events, the likelihood of marriage is high the year of migration and again only after 6 years in the U.S, whereas the likelihood of cohabitation is high the year of migration and remains high for all subsequent years, increasing with time in the U.S. These preliminary results suggest that connections between migration and family formation differ by type of partnership, and non-marital unions appear to be particularly salient among women who migrate single.

Keywords: International migration, Family demography, Migrant populations

See paper.

  Presented in Session 64. Different Pathways to Residential and Non-residential Partnerships