Variation in the link between income position and union dissolution: an analysis of couples with and without a migrant background in Belgium

Abstract

ABSTRACT Despite the fact that the size and diversity of migrant populations and their descendants in Europe have increased substantially throughout the past decades, income dynamics of union dissolution have not been studied among populations with a migrant background in the European context. Using data from the Belgian Social Security Registers from 1999–2013, we estimate discrete-time event-history models of union dissolution for couples of Belgian, Southern European, Moroccan and Turkish origin. The results indicate a weaker link between household income and union dissolution among couples with a Southern European and Turkish background. Whereas couples without a migrant background experience the lowest union dissolution risks when incomes are evenly distributed, the male breadwinner model does not raise union dissolution risks of couples with a migrant background. Welfare dependency has a positive association with union dissolution among all couples but the threshold at which it raises union dissolution risks is higher for couples with a Moroccan or Turkish background.