1. The Globalisation of Swedish Marriage Fields Thomas Niedomysl*, John Östh** and Maarten van Ham*** *Institute for Futures Studies, Sweden **Uppsala University, Sweden ***University of St Andrews, UK

2. Points of departure Marriage fields – the geographical area where people meet to partner – traditionally tend to be relatively small and local Bossard (1932); Coleman and Haskey (1986); Bozon and Heran (1989) Increasing levels of Globalisation: global connectivity, integration and interdependence in all spheres of society Harvey (1989); Amin and Thrift (1997); Appadurai (1996); Dicken et al. (1997); Held (2000) Does this lead to a Globalisation of Marriage fields?

3. Aim Explore whether a globalisation of marriage fields can be said to exist Special attention paid to: A)Geographical differences (countries of origin) B)Demographical differences (sex and age) C)Socio-economic differences (education)

4. Theoretical background Theories of intermarriages between natives and foreigners (Klein 2001) A. Opportunity structures/structural factors size of the group of foreign groups of society the proportion of male and female in the foreign groups of society other subdivisions of the marriage market B. Cultural factors C. Individual factors Theories of marriages (Kalmijn 1998) A. Preferences of marriage candidates socioeconomic resources cultural resources preferences and homogamy B. Third parties group identification group sanctions C. Marriage markets The logic of numbers The geography of groups Local marriage markets

5. Case study of Sweden Two reasons why Sweden is a particularly well suited country for exploring the existence of a globalisation of marriage fields: 1)Unique longitudinal population data Database that covers all immigrants to Sweden 1990-2004 containing various geographic-, demographic and socioeconomic information about each individual, with possibilities to link data for families 2) One of the worlds most globalised countries According to Dreher (2002) Sweden has been in the top three of the worlds most globalised countries for the last thirty years or so

6. Some background data Immigrants who married or cohabit with a Swede N = 43 862 (9 %) Globalisation Number of immigrants to Sweden 1990-2004 N = 485473 Same country of origin/ cultural background N = 3 694 (9 %) Different country of origin/cultural background N = 40 168 (91 %) We only look at immigrants who marry a native Swede whose parents were born in Sweden (thus excluding all “culture marriages”)

7. Immigration to Sweden 1990-2004 1990 N = 32713 2004 N = 38376 Increase by 17 % Globalisation? 3% 5% 7% 22% 25% 10% 1% 18%

8. Immigration to Sweden 1990-2004

9. ”Immigrant partners” to Sweden 1990-2004 8% 9% 7% 10% 20% 16% 18% 2% 12% 1990 N = 2519 2004 N = 3449 Increase by 37 % Globalisation…?

10. ”Immigrant partners” to Sweden 1990-2004

11. ”Immigrant partners” men and women 1990-2004 11% 7% 9% 19% 11% 24% 4% 3% 12% Men marrying native Swedish women 6% 10% 5% 9% 11% 2% 26% 29% 1% Women marrying native Swedish men

12. ”Immigrant partners” to Sweden 1990-2004

14. Comparing age structures for men and women from different types of regions Swedish men (left) marrying Swedish women (right) (mean age diff 0 years, median diff 1 year). Swedish women (right) marrying men from high income country (left) (mean age diff -1.7 years, median diff 0 years). Swedish men (left) marrying women from high income country (right) (mean age diff 2.7 years, median diff 2 years). Swedish men (left) marrying women from low income country (right) (mean age diff 11.0 years, median diff 9 years). Swedish women (right) marrying men from low income country (left) (mean age diff -1.4 years, median diff 0 years). Immigrant from high income country Immigrant from low income country Immigrant menImmigrant women Note: country divisions according to the World Bank

15. Age differences per region between immigrant men and women marrying a Swede, 2004.

16. Educational levels per region among immigrant men and women marrying a Swede, 2004. %ages.

17. Educational levels per country type among immigrant men and women marrying a Swede, 2004. %ages.

18. Educational distances between couples, 2004.

19. Summary Total volumes only some support for globalisation… However, marriage related migration much more support Volumes are somewhat similar between men and women Large geographical differences in terms regions of origin Age differences in particular for Swedish men Immigrants tend to have a high level of education

20. Further research More in-depth on the characteristics of these couples What happens to them after arriving to Sweden? Questions or comments?