Marriage Market and Immigration in an Age of Globalization. German Men's Motives for Marriage with Women from Poor Countries.
Project Coordinator
Project Researchers
Abstract
Low-skilled persons from underdeveloped countries, who want to participate in Western prospertity, are faced with growing immigration restrictions. Today, one of the few legal ways of migration to Western welfare states is marriage migration. This possibility is used mainly by women from poor countries. Studies on marriage migration show that the deciding motives for marriage with a man from a rich country are of economic nature. While several studies analyse the circumstances leading to marriage migration, we still know very little about the motives of men from Western societies for marriage with marriage migrants. For this reason, our project analyses why German men marry women from poorer countries.
First we conduct a secondary analysis of the Socio-economic Panel Study (SOEP, waves 1984-2005) and the Mikrozensus (1999 and 2003). Second we carry out a mail survey among 4.450 married couples with German husbands and wives from Germany (1.000), Thailand (1.000), Russia (1.000), Poland (1.000) and Brazil (450).
Duration
01.10.2007-30.09.2009
Funding
This project is funded by the Fritz-Thyssen-Stiftung.
Publications
Glowsky, David, 2007: Why Do German Men Marry Women from Less Developed Countries? In: Zeitschrift für Soziologie 36(4): 282-301.