Migrant Status, Sexuality, and the Limits of Status Exchange Theory

• In Event: Families and Migration (Co-sponsored by Sociology of the Population Section)

Abstract

This paper examines how status exchange operates in migrant–native unions in the United States, with attention to differences by gender and sexuality. Using American Community Survey data from 2008–2023 and the counterfactual framework developed by Xie and Dong (2021), we analyze two dimensions of exchange: 1) nativity and education and 2) age and education. Across most groups, results run counter to classic exchange theory. In native–immigrant pairings, straight men, straight women, and LGBQ women tend to have immigrant partners with slightly lower educational status than counterfactual same-group partners, while LGBQ men uniquely partner with higher-status immigrants. In age-gap unions, immigrants—whether younger or older—generally have lower education than immigrants in same-age unions, with the steepest discrepancies for LGBQ men (younger partners) and LGBQ women (older partners). These findings suggest that exchange patterns are contingent on sexuality and gender, highlighting the limits of traditional status exchange theory in explaining migrant partnering.

Authors

• Alexander Adames, University of Michigan

• Nathan I Hoffmann, Emory University

• Kristopher Velasco, Princeton University