Exogamy, Proximity to Parents, and the Residential Choices of 1.5‐ and Second‐Generation Immigrants in Sweden

ABSTRACT Living near kin facilitates intergenerational support, which may be especially important for immigrant families. For 1.5‐ and second‐generation immigrants, this creates a tension between residential integration and family obligations. This tension can grow when forming a union, particularly with a nonimmigrant. Yet little is known about how residential moves for partnered immigrants shape and are shaped by proximity to parents. Using Swedish register data from 1990 to 2017, we examine the settlement patterns and residential choices of (1) endogamous immigrant couples where partners have the same national background, (2) exogamous couples featuring one immigrant and one nonimmigrant partner, and (3) endogamous unions with two nonimmigrant Swedish partners. Descriptive statistics show that endogamous immigrants are most likely to be living near their parents, followed by exogamous immigrants, and then endogamous and exogamous Swedes. However, discrete choice models of residential mobility behaviors , which account for the spatial distribution of housing, reveal that all groups are more likely to locate nearer to parents, with only modest differences between them. Across model specifications, the effect of distance to parents for immigrants in exogamous unions is slightly, but consistently, weaker than for their partners or counterparts in other kinds of unions. These findings suggest weaker attachments between exogamous immigrants and their parents, while also underscoring how group differences in proximity to family reflect the uneven geographic distributions of housing and immigrant families in Sweden.