FASoS Colloquium: Union formation among (children of) migrants in Europe: new patterns and determinants?
Speaker: Helga de Valk, Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute
Date: Wednesday 10 June
Time and Place: 15.30-17.30, Spiegelzaal, Soiron building
Globalisation, Transnationalism & Development Colloquium, organised in association with Maastricht Centre for Citizenship, Migration and Development (MACIMIDE)
Abstract
Research on the transition to adulthood emphasizes the importance of union -and family formation in young adults’ lives. Although the literature has covered migrants and their descendants, little is known on how these life-changing events are interrelated. Furthermore although it has been often claimed that parents’ and partner characteristics are important for life choices so far the relationship between these characteristics and subsequent demographic behavior have only been partially covered. This is unfortunate as the growing shares of children of immigrants are in union and family formation ages. In this presentation I will present some recent findings from ongoing research projects covering 1) life paths of children of immigrants and the interrelatedness of demographic events 2) intermarriage and family formation among the children of immigrants and 3) intra-European binational unions and their determinants. I will take a comparative perspective covering different migrant origins in diverse European countries of settlement in order to determine what the old and new patterns of union formation among (children of) immigrants are.
Helga de Valk is Professor of Migration and the Life-course at the Faculty of Spatial Sciences, University of Groningen and Professor of Migration, Families and the Life-course at the Interface Demography, Vrije Universiteit Brussel. She is a team leader of various research projects at the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI) on migrants and migration. Her expertise is on international migration, demographic characteristics and behavior of migrant populations, family formation, and intergenerational relationships.
