Mantenimiento. El mantenimiento a los sistemas consta de dos partes:

Table I.5.1 summarizes all hypotheses that were deduced from the theoretical considerations and prior empirical research presented in the previous chapters and formulated thereafter. These hypotheses are elaborations of the theoretical model of this dissertation which was presented in chapter 3.4. They relate to the research questions of this dissertation: What role do parents in immigrant families play within the ethnic partner choice of their children? And particularly, to what extent do they influence their offspring’s partner choice indirectly through the intergenerational transmission of cultural contents?

And lastly, how far do these cultural contents shape the ethnic partner choice? The hypotheses are specified to the direct parental influence and cultural contents under study.

Formulating these more specific assumptions allows me to empirically investigate the research questions in detail. I will do so within the next part of this dissertation.

Part II of this dissertation, i.e., my own empirical analyses, consists of two independent studies. The first is concerned with the ethnic partner choice of adult second-generation immigrants in Europe. It uses data from the survey ‘The Integration of the European Second Generation’ (TIES). The second study investigates the early ethnic partner choice among adolescent immigrants of various origins and generations in Europe. It relies on data from the survey ‘Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries’

(CILS4EU). It might appear counterintuitive to not consider ethnic partner choice chronologically, i.e., considering ethnic partner choice in adolescence before ethnic partner choice in adulthood. However, I chose this order since the topic of immigrants’ ethnic partner choice and its determinants is commonly studied among adults but rarely among adolescents. Thus, I will investigate the more thoroughly researched topic before venturing into the theoretically less considered and empirically less examined realms of adolescents’

ethnic partner choice.

While hypotheses 2 (intermarriage attitudes) and 7 (language retention) are formulated for both studies, hypotheses concerning direct parental involvement (hypotheses 1), religion and religiosity (hypotheses 3 and 4) as well as collectivistic orientations (hypotheses 5 and 6) are framed for each study separately. Separate assumptions are made due to the specifics of the two data sets and the research approaches chosen within each study. Within the first study on adults, the independent variables capturing cultural contents and their transmission represent information on the respondents’ childhood or their parents’

characteristics during this time. By doing so, I am able to rule out the possibility that estimated effects originate from reversed causal relationships, i.e., that the partner choice shapes respondents’ cultural characteristics rather than the other way around. This risk would occur if the independent variables would be the respondent’s current information at the time of the interview and thus from a point in time after the partner choice. Within the second study on adolescents, I do not have the option of taking such an approach. However, the risk of reversed causality is less striking therein since respondents are only around 14-years old and have thus just started dating. While the union formation might have occurred years if not decades before the interview within the adult sample, this is not the case for adolescents. Their union formation most likely occurred within the past few months. Thus, a change of cultural characteristics due to the union formation is less likely among adolescents.

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TABLE I.5.1 OVERVIEW OF HYPOTHESES

Hypotheses 1 – Direct parental influence – TIES & CILS4EU Mediation Effects Parental

pressure to separate (TIES)

Ethnically endogamous couples < interethnic couples 1a Locally endogamous couples > transnationally endogamous

Hypotheses 2 – Relevance and transmission of intermarriage attitudes – TIES & CILS4EU

Parental intermarriage

… reduces probability of endogamy and increases

probability of a native partner 2a Effect mediated by current

feelings of belonging and ethnic composition of the friendship network No influence on the choice between transnational and local 2c

endogamy 2b

Hypotheses 3 – Indirect parental influence: Transmission of religion and religiosity – CILS4EU Adolescent’s

religious affiliation

Hierarchy of endogamy probabilities: Muslims > other Christians > Catholic, Protestant, and undenominational individuals; reversed hierarchy of probability of a native partner

affiliation Same hierarchies as for adolescents (see hypothesis 3a) 3b Adolescent’s

religiosity Same effect as for adolescents (see hypothesis 3d) 3e

Hypotheses 4 – Indirect parental influence: Transmission of religion and religiosity – TIES

Religious upbringing

Hierarchy of endogamy probabilities: Sunni, other denominations of Islam > Shia or Alevi Islam > Orthodox Christianity > Catholic, Protestant, or no religious No influence on the choice between transnational and local 4e

endogamy 4b

Hypotheses 5 – Indirect parental influence: Transmission of collectivistic orientations – CILS4EU Adolescent’s

collectivism positively related to the endogamy probability and

negatively to the probability of a native partner 5a Effects of parental collectivism are mediated by adolescent’s collectivism 5c Parental

collectivism Same effect as for adolescents (see hypothesis 5a) 5b

Hypotheses 6 – Indirect parental influence: Transmission of collectivistic orientations – TIES Parents’

number of children

… related to a higher probability of ethnic endogamy… 6a Effects of number of children and rural origin

… and a higher probability of transnational partner choice

within endogamy 6b

Mother’s rural origin

… related to a higher probability of ethnic endogamy… 6c

… and a higher probability of transnational partner choice

within endogamy 6d

Hypotheses 7 – Indirect parental influence: Transmission of language (retention) – TIES & CILS4EU Language

retention

… increases endogamy probability and reduces the

probability of a native partner 7a Effect mediated by

offspring’s current language use with the family

… increases probability of choosing a transnational partner 7c

within endogamy 7b

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The individual hypotheses within a series of related hypotheses are differentiated by letters.

Therein, the organization of these individual hypotheses is similar for each topic. The first hypotheses within a series inform about the assumptions made regarding the association or relationship between each independent variable, i.e., the direct parental influence or the respective cultural content, and the outcome, i.e., the ethnic partner choice. Regarding the series of hypotheses for each cultural content, the last hypothesis relates every time to the proposed mechanism of the intergenerational transmission of the respective cultural content and its influence on the ethnic partner choice. These all propose a mediating effect of the respondent’s current characteristics for the corresponding parental characteristic or childhood upbringing. The latter category of hypotheses is highlighted in gray.

As a last remark, within this dissertation, hypotheses for adolescents’ ethnic partner choice closely resemble or are even identical to those formulated for adults. The reason for this is that theoretical considerations and prior research efforts mostly focus on adults.

Substantially less is known about adolescents’ partner choice let alone their ethnic partner choice. Thus, despite working with explicit hypotheses, the investigation of ethnic partner choice in adolescence is, to a certain degree, explorative. It might be that culture and its transmission do indeed have similar associations with the ethnic partner choice in adolescence and adulthood. However, it might likewise be that cultural characteristics are more or less important in adolescence than later in life. The parental direct and indirect influence might be even stronger for adolescents since they live at home and thus are directly subject to it. In opposition, it can be argued that the parental influence might be less strong. Cultural similarity might simply not play a relevant role yet within these early unions – not for the adolescents and likewise not for the parents. Other factors might be more important among adolescents, such as attractiveness, age homogamy, popularity, etc.

Only as individuals age and approach the time for more serious relationships – such as cohabitation and marriage – might having a partner with similar cultural characteristics, similar attitudes, worldview, values, etc. become increasingly important. Moreover, while certain cultural characteristics might display the same associations in these two stages of life, effects might differ for other factors.

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