Like parents, like children? The impact of parental endogamy and exogamy on their children’s partner choices in Sweden

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the marriage patterns of multi-ethnic people – who have one native-born and one foreign-born parent – born in Sweden (multi-ethnic Swedes). Based on Swedish register data from the period 1997–2016 and multinomial regression analysis, this paper looks into the generational transmission of inter- and intra-marriage for multi-ethnic Swedes versus mono-ethnic individuals who have two native-born parents (mono-ethnic Swedes). It also analyses specific partner choices for multi-ethnic and mono-ethnic Swedes as well as the contribution of other factors to their marriage patterns. We find that the odds of multi-ethnic Swedes marrying individuals with a foreign background are higher than those of mono-ethnic Swedes. Living in one of the three major cities was found to be the strongest predictor among other factors affecting marital patterns. Our results also show that highly educated multi-ethnic and mono-ethnic Swedes are slightly less likely to marry individuals with a foreign background than they are to marry mono-ethnic Swedes.