Volume 36 - Article 10 | Pages 307–338  

Family migration in a cross-national perspective: The importance of institutional and cultural context

By Sergi Vidal, Francisco Perales, Philipp M. Lersch, Maria Brandén

This article is part of the Special Collection 20 "Finding Work‒Life Balance: History, Determinants, and Consequences of New Breadwinning Models in the Industrialized World"

Abstract

Objective: Migration rates of dual-earner couples are lower than those of male-breadwinner couples. We revisit this issue using a cross-national comparative perspective and examine heterogeneity in the role of female employment in couple relocations. We propose a theoretical framework in which national levels of support for female employment and normative expectations about gender roles act as moderators of the relationship between couple type (i.e., dual-earner and male-breadwinner) and family migration.

Methods: We deploy discrete-time event history analyses of harmonised longitudinal data from four large-scale datasets from Australia, Britain, Germany, and Sweden, covering the 1992-2011 period.

Results: Consistent with prior research, we find that male-breadwinner couples migrate more often than dual-earner couples in all countries, suggesting that traditional gender structures affecting family migration operate across very different contexts. We also find cross-country differences in the estimated effects of different sorts of absolute and relative partner resources on family migration.

Conclusions: We take our results as preliminary evidence that national contexts can serve as moderators of the relationship between within-couple employment arrangements and family migration decisions.

Contribution: Our study contributes to family migration literature by illustrating how cross-national comparisons are a valuable methodological approach to put prevailing micro-level explanations of the relationship between female employment and family migration in context.

Author's Affiliation

• Sergi Vidal - Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics (CED), Spain EMAIL
• Francisco Perales - University of Queensland, Australia EMAIL
• Philipp M. Lersch - Universität zu Köln, Germany EMAIL
• Maria Brandén - Linköpings Universitet, Sweden EMAIL

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

Changes in gender role attitudes following couples' residential relocations
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My house or our home? Transitions into sole home ownership in British couples
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The intergenerational transmission of migration capital: The role of family migration history and lived migration experiences
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Geographical distance between child and parent after a union dissolution in Sweden, 1974–2011
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Separation, divorce, and housing tenure: A cross-country comparison
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Introduction to the special collection on spatial mobility, family dynamics, and gender relations
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Division of housework and his and her view of housework fairness: A typology of Swedish couples
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Domestic gender equality and childbearing in Sweden
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