Mixed Unions and Immigrant-Group Integration in North America and Western Europe

Abstract

We examine unions between individuals with non-Western immigrant origins and those from the native majorities in six North American and Western European countries: Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and the United States. The analysis shows that certain deep social cleavages, involving African ancestry in the United States and Muslim religion in Western Europe, hinder the formation of mixed unions; in the European case, low rates of mixed unions are linked in some countries to high rates of transnational marriage. Overall, the rates of mixed unions appear to be higher in Canada, France, and the United States, suggesting a role for integration-related ideologies. In the case of the United States, we are able to trace the consequences of mixed unions, which appear likely to have the effect of changing, or expanding, the societal mainstream. Yet we conclude that mixed unions do not have a uniform significance for integration and that their effects are context-dependent.