Migration for Co-Residence in Denmark: The Role of Family Ties and Family Complexity

Roselinde van der Wiel , University of Groningen
Lene Toelboell Blenstrup, Aalborg University

When two romantic partners decide to live together, an important decision they have to make is where to live: who moves in with whom, or what will be the new destination for both? This decision is of particularly high relevance when starting co-residence requires one or both partners to make a long-distance move (i.e. migration), resulting in a disruption of local ties. This paper explores the role of ties to family members outside the household and elements of family complexity in the issue of which partner migrates for co-residence: he, she or both. We use Danish population register data to perform multinomial logistic regression. The study population constitutes all heterosexual couples aged 18-70 who entered co-residence between 2009 and 2018 and who were long-distance prior to co-residence. Our preliminary findings show that it is more common for women to migrate towards their male partner than the other way around. For women, having prior union experience(s) lowers the probability of her migrating towards him, rather than him towards her. For men, the effect of union history depends strongly on whether he stayed in or moved out of the home at the time of the prior union dissolution. Resident, school-going children and minor children living nearby lower the risk of migrating towards one’s partner for both men and women, while non-school-going resident children and adult children living nearby only affect women. Living close to a parent or sibling lowers the risk of migrating, but living with one increases the risk of migrating.

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 Presented in Session P1. Poster Session Fertility, Family and the Life Course