Intermarriage as a Social Resource

• In Event: 299 - Section on Inequality, Poverty and Mobility Paper Session. Mobility in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

Foundational literature on immigrant integration posits that intermarriage is one of the final steps in the group assimilation process. However, this assumes conditions that are not
true in many contemporary cases. I use 60 in-depth English-language interviews and over 800 hours of observational data of Sub-Saharan Africans in Japan to show that the value of intermarriage is substantially different across two distinct classes of migrants. For low-skilled migrants, intermarriage is often the first step towards socioeconomic incorporation. For high-skilled
or professional migrants, stability of legal status and comparatively broad access to human capital and social networks results in greater discretion for partner selection and marriage timing. This article demonstrates that the significance of intermarriage on assimilation is mediated by individual migrants’ mode of incorporation and access to capital resources within the receiving society.

Author

• Tristan Ivory, Indiana University-Bloomington