Marriage among the foreign-born population in Spain: transitions and determinants

Daniela Vono, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Luis Alberto Del Rey Poveda, Universidad de Salamanca

The main objective of this study is to analyze the endogamous and exogamous transition to first marriage of immigrants who arrived as singles in Spain, To complete our analysis we used a discrete-time logistic model. We included individuals from Colombia, Ecuador, Morocco, Romania and Argentina- the five developing countries that are most represented in Spain as per the 2007 Spanish National Immigration Survey. The results show varying patterns of marriage formation in relation to sex and type of marriage. The length of residence, educational level, access to Spanish citizenship and country of birth have are significant in the explanation of differences between the two types of marriage. With regard to the differences between sexes, the period of arrival and the existence of social networks are strong factors that influence the probability of getting married. In general, it was observed that individual preferences in conjunction with socio-demographic characteristics greatly affect the marriage market in terms of transition to marriage.