Behind the Veil of Cultural Persistence: Marriage and Divorce in a Migrant Community

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.