Saturday, March 15, 2014
Capitol (Omni Shoreham)
Previous research on intermarriage has identified opportunity structures as key to the formation of ethnically mixed couples. These studies covered mainly marriages between non-western and European partners. The European integration project has, however, by stimulating intra European mobility as such significantly increased the opportunities for citizens of different European origins to meet. European mixed couples are perceived to be a proof of success of this European project, as well as a catalyst in the integration process of the EU-migrant. Surprisingly however, European integration has not resulted in the expected increase in European binational relationships. Based on earlier analyses on population data we know that the number of binational relationships has remained stable over the past 25 years. In order to go beyond these trends and find out the relevant mechanisms, more needs to be known on the opportunity structures and contextual factors in which European binational couples are formed. In this paper we examine the opportunity context of European binational couples at the start of their relationship. We then take a closer look at the migration and mobility history of the partners to see how and if this has influenced their relationship formation. We make use of the unique Belgian EUMARR survey data, which includes information on more than 800 individuals in inter-European and native relationships. We try to explain the partner choice for a native or a European partner in terms of the mobility of the Belgian partner at the time of meeting and in a life-course perspective.
