Opposites attract: is there evidence of status exchange patterns in ethnic intermarriages? Sweden 1991-2009

Annika Elwert, Lund University
Martin Dribe, Lund University

This paper raises the question of status exchange in intermarriages between immigrants and natives in Sweden. To address this popular hypothesis and in order to understand processes of intermarriage and status exchange we study factors promoting exogamy among the majority population of native born Swedes. The study covers the period 1990-2009 and makes use of register data covering the entire Swedish population, which makes it possible to conduct detailed comparisons between different spousal origin groups. As expected by status exchange hypothesis, results from multinomial logistic regressions show less homogamy in exogamous marriages, yet the direction of heterogamy is not in line with the hypothesis. We argue that status exchange is not the dominant pattern in marriages between immigrants and natives in Sweden and consequently decide to shed light on other intermarriage determinants such as age at marriage and remarriage.