Life courses of immigrants and their descendants. Doctoral thesis

Zijn proefschrift is getiteld 'Life courses of immigrants and their descendants', een onderzoek naar hoe jongeren van diverse etnische herkomstgroepen in Nederland de transitie naar volwassenheid maken, waarbij voornamelijk is gekeken naar gebeurtenissen in hun familie- en gezinsleven.Academic and public debates about increasing immigration and ethnic diversity in Europe have largely remained focused on the socioeconomic position and the cultural/linguistic acculturation of ethnic minorities. Much less is known about family behavior of immigrants and in particular, that of their descendants. This study focused on family dynamics among young adults from migrant and native Dutch families, covering a relatively recent immigrant population (viz. Polish immigrants) as well as the second generation of more established immigrant groups in the Netherlands (viz. Turks, Moroccans, Surinamese, and Antilleans).Many Polish immigrants returned to the country of origin after several years of stay. Those who lived with their partner and children in the Netherlands, however, were found to settle more permanently. This highlights that migrants’ family dynamics are crucial to understand and forecast immigration behavior, particularly so in EU-context without borders. Regarding family dynamics of descendants of immigrants, we found that these strongly match the patterns dominant in their parents’ country of origin. This was reflected in a preference of marriage over unmarried cohabitation among Turkish and Moroccan youth, a rather high incidence of single motherhood among Surinamese and Antillean women, and younger ages of partnership formation and childbearing as compared to the native Dutch. Our analyses suggested that descendants of immigrants tend to adjust their educational and labor market careers to their family life, while this is the other way around for native Dutch youth. This results in unequal chances in education and labor