Behind the Veil of Cultural Persistence: Marriage and Divorce in a Migrant Community
The Economic Journal · 2026 · Catherine Guirkinger、Jean‐Philippe Platteau、Zaki Wahhaj
中文摘要
在原籍国选择配偶的包办婚姻，是许多移民社区中持续存在的一种做法。在这一背景下，包办婚姻并非由移民父母强加给子女，而是双方协商的结果。父母将这种婚姻视为将自身身份传递给下一代的载体。子女之所以抵制，是因为担心与未来配偶的相互兼容性。于是，矛盾的是，离婚的可能性反而可以通过说服年轻人接受与父母的妥协，提高包办婚姻的吸引力。这对女性而言尤为如此，因为离婚是她们摆脱失败婚姻的唯一可能出路（而男性可以在不受社会谴责的情况下发生婚外情）。为检验这些直觉，我们利用了比利时离婚法的一项变化（2007年引入无过错离婚）。基于关于土耳其移民后裔（第二代男性和女性）的两套独特数据，我们发现，这一法律变化对包办婚姻（“进口配偶”）发生率及离婚率的影响在女性与男性之间存在差异。相对于女性，第二代男性选择包办婚姻（以及离婚）的倾向有所下降。
Abstract
Abstract Arranged marriage with a spouse chosen in the country of origin is a persisting practice in many migrant communities. In this context, rather than being imposed by migrant parents on children, an arranged marriage is the outcome of a negotiation between them. Parents see this type of marriage as a vector of transmission of their identity to the next generation. Children resist because they are concerned about mutual compatibility with their future spouse. Then, paradoxically, the possibility of divorce can increase the appeal of arranged marriages, by convincing young adults to accept the compromise with their parents. This is particularly true for women for whom divorce is the only possible exit out of a failed marriage (when men can entertain extra-marital affairs without social disapproval). To test these intuitions, we exploit a change in the divorce law in Belgium (introduction of no-fault divorce in 2007). On the basis of two unique sets of data on descendants of Turkish migrants (second-generation men and women), we find that the effect of this legal change on the incidence of arranged marriages (with an ‘imported spouse’) and divorce differs between women and men. The propensity to choose an arranged marriage (and to divorce) is decreased for second-generation men relative to women.