Trends in the rates of mixed marriages

This article focuses on the following question: How would interracial marriage rates change when considering the racial distribution of the local marriage market? I used data from the Brazilian Census for the years 1991 and 2000 and loglinear models. The results show that homogamy-heterogamy rates have traditionally been overestimated, as demonstrated by a change between 15.3 percent to 43.16 percent, when the local racial distribution of spouses is considered. The gap between the percentage differences is smaller in 2000 than in 1991. When analyzing the homogamy-heterogamy rates for each marriage market, one observes that the interaction between a spouse’s race and the marriage market is important, with very few exceptions. In addition, although most mesoregions have homogamy-heterogamy rates equal to the average level, there are some important regional differences, especially in the South, where the levels are higher than the average.

Individuals seeking to remarry often face a more restricted marriage market compared with those searching for marriage for the first time. Marriage market constraints after divorce mean that individuals must often “cast a wider net” that includes potential partners of different ages, education, racial backgrounds, or nativity status. In this paper, we identify marriages formed in the previous year from 2008 to 2010 microfiles of the American Community Surveys. We examine whether remarried couples are more likely to cross racial/ethnic or nativity boundaries to form intermarriage than first married couples. We formulate hypotheses based on status exchange theories. Our results reveal that remarried individuals are more likely to form white-minority marriages than first married couples. In addition, marriages involving at least one person who has been previously married (i.e., divorced) are more heterogeneous in marriage order, educational attainment, and age than those couples in which both spouses are in first marriages. These results suggest strong status exchange in intermarriage among the remarried.

Marriages in India are essentially endogamous in nature. The influences of western education and socio-economic transformations have led to enormous change in the existing pattern of choosing one’s life partner and marriage practices in India. For the first time, this paper presents a comprehensive empirical assessment of the extent of mixed marriages by analyzing nationally representative data from the Indian Human Development Survey (IHDS, 2005). We consider mixed marriages in the following key aspects: Inter-caste marriage, Inter-religious marriage and Inter-economic group marriage (Inter-class marriage). The trend analyses reveal that the proportion of inter-caste and inter-religious marriages has doubled in the last two and half decades. With the exception of inter-class marriages, the absolute level of mixed marriages is still exceedingly small. Besides, there are substantial variations across the states. Regression analyses show a significant socio-economic differential in the occurrence of mixed marriages. The study reveals that a very few women have the freedom to choose their spouse. These findings assume importance in the context of an increasing number of ‘honour killings’ in India in the recent years.