The Union Formation and Dissolution Among Turkish Immigrants and Their Descendants in Germany

Abstract

This thesis aims to find the extent to which first-generation Turkish immigrants and their descendants converge to or diverge from the partnership practices that are commonly accepted among natives in Germany. The Second Demographic Transition (SDT) guides the analysis to compare Turkish immigrants and natives, while immigrants’ position will be evaluated by giving reference to integration hypotheses. This study uses the Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics (pairfam) survey with a reference period of 2008-2018. It employs event-history models (the Cox proportional hazard model and Kaplan-Meier survival estimates) to analyze transitions from (1) celibacy to the first partnership, (2) celibacy to the first marriage, (3) celibacy to first cohabitation, (4) cohabitation to marriage, and (5) marriage to divorce. The results show that partnership practices linked to the SDT are not prevalent among Turkish immigrants. First and second-generation tends to marry directly and divorce less than their native counterparts. While consensual unions stay uncommon, cohabitation outcomes show that preferences regarding this partnership are not the same for descendants and their parents. While the latter keep cohabitation as short as possible and proceed to marriage, second-generation extend the duration and alternatively separate from the cohabiting partner. Unlike the first generation, second-generation significantly postpone the timing of their first marriage. Therefore, strong socialization to norms and values transformed by parents and weak adaptation to the native pattern for second-generation Turkish immigrants are found in the analysis of all four transitions except transition to first union formation