Assortative Mating by Ethnic Background and Education in Sweden: The Role of Parental Composition on Partner Choice

Assortative mating patterns in two dimensions namely, ethnic background and education are analysed in this paper for individuals with an immigrant background living in Sweden. We focus on the role of individual and spousal characteristics as well as the role of parental composition on partnership formation. Results indicate that assorative mating by ethnic background is significantly lower for second generation immigrants in comparison to first generation immigrants. In the case of assortative mating by education, although the descriptive statistics show that the proportion of educational homogamy is higher for second generation immigrants, after controlling for own and partners’ characteristics, educational homogamy is found to be significantly lower for those in the second generation. Gender differences in these patterns suggest that second generation females are significantly less likely than second generation men to be in educational homogamous partnerships relative to their first generation counterparts. In terms of parental composition, having a Swedish background (mother or father) is associated with lower ethnic endogamy, especially for first generation women. Having a Swedish background is also associated with significantly higher probabilities of educational homogamy but primarily only for first generation male immigrants.