Marriages of spouses with a migratory background: focus on “new Italians”?

Abstract

The advanced path of integration of migrants in Italy makes it increasingly difficult to measure family behaviours by type of couple. The aim of the following work is to analyse marriages with at least a spouse with migratory background by studying the type of couple in a "dynamic" way (considering the citizenship both at the time of birth and at the time of marriage). The data are from the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) Survey on marriages, celebrated in Italy, validated also by using the integration with ISTAT estimates of citizenship acquisitions. Through descriptive analysis we compared the profiles of foreign citizens, new Italians and Italians by birth distinguished by gender. A particular focus is on the combination of the socio-demographic characteristics of the couple (e. g. age gap). Age assortative mating patterns show clear differences by gender and citizenship. For intermarriages where the groom is Italian by birth, we observe the highest age gap (9 years, over 4 years more compared to the total of marriages); when the groom is a new Italian, on the contrary, the age gap drops to 6.2 years.