Imported family models? Cohabitation patterns of Latin American women in Spain

Abstract

During the last decade, international immigration flows have undergone a dramatic growth in Spain. In this particular context, the purpose of this article is to analyze whether Latin American female migrants residing in Spain largely maintain nuptial and reproductive patterns from their countries of origin. To analyze the prevalence of consensual unions we use three different databases: the Spanish Immigration Survey, the Spanish Labour Force Survey and birth records, all of them corresponding to 2007 and collected by the Spanish Statistical Institute. The study documents the high prevalence of consensual unions among Latin American migrants. Regarding the socio-demographic factors influencing cohabitation, our results show important similarities between Spanish and Latin American women, except for educational attainment.

Keywords

• américa latina
• cohabitación
• parejas de hecho
• fecundidad extramatrimonial
• población inmigrante
• españa