The choice of mixed marriage among the second generation in France: a lifetime approach

Authors

  • Emmanuelle Santelli CNRS Researcher MoDyS, Lyons
  • Beate Collet Lecturer, Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV) University

Abstract

Research on couples with different cultural backgrounds, i.e. couples including persons of migrant descent, has been conducted in France since the 1980s. Researchers currently use the concept ‘mixité’ (mixedness), which suggests that the process is a question not only of culture, but also of social group and gender. By calling the couples ‘mixed’ our aim is to study these questions in all their multi-faceted dimensions.
These couples are ‘mixed’ not because they are bi-cultural, but because their choice challenges marital norms and group memberships. Against the backdrop of considerations on endogamy and homogamy, we present some key ideas brought to light by 91 in-depth, biographical interviews with 57 women and 34 men, conducted in 2007. Because we compared endogamous and mixed couples, it was possible to identify how the different types of couples reach their marital choices and to what extent they are influenced by cultural, gendered or social factors. These factors are both personal (education level, specific conditions of socialisation and peer groups) and structural (urban segregation or overall social discrimination).

Key words: couples; migrant descent; marital relations; endogamy; homogamy; marital choice; family relations; group socialisation; urban segregation; social discrimination.

Keywords

Couples, migrant descent, marital relations, endogamy, homogamy, marital choice, family relations, group socialisation, urban segregation, social discrimination

Author Biographies

Emmanuelle Santelli, CNRS Researcher MoDyS, Lyons

Born in France, University studies in sociology and PhD Thesis on the trajectories of the descendants of North African families (1997) at the University of Lyons. Research scholar at the CNRS (National Centre of Scientific Research) since 2000 in the research unit MoDyS (Mondes et dynamiques des sociétés) in Lyons and, since 1995, associated research scholar at the INED (National Institute of Demographic Studies) in Paris. Research fields: second generation of Maghrebi migrants, upward mobility, conjugal and familial dynamics.

Beate Collet, Lecturer, Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV) University

Beate Collet holds a sociology degree from the University of Nantes (France) and a PhD from the EHESS in Paris on ‘Mixed marriages and citizenship in France and Germany’ (1996). She was a lecturer at the University of Lyon from 1998 to 2007 and she is currently at the Sorbonne University in Paris. She is member of the research unit GEMASS (Groupe d’étude de l’Analyse sociologique de la Sorbonne). She teaches family dynamics and integration theory and empirical methods. Her research focus is on mixed couples, conjugal and family dynamics, integration processes, and spatial mobility in professional life.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/papers/v97n1.280

Published

01-01-2012

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Copyright (c) 1970 Emmanuelle Santelli, Beate Collet

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.