Trends and patterns in Euro-marriages in the Netherlands

L.J.G. van Wissen, E.L. Heering

Research output: Contribution to journal/periodicalArticleScientificpeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Although the European Union is usually viewed as a project aimed at creating a single commodity market, one of its primary purposes was more generally to remove social and cultural boundaries between the European nation-states. Intermarriage is a classical indicator of the formation of social ties and communities. One could claim that the creation of a real social, political, cultural, and supranational European space is only complete if people are also willing to accept each other as their spouses. As part of Europe's social integration, Euro-marriage can be regarded as the litmus test of European integration, and the Netherlands with his status as a founding member should have enjoyed the benefits of one single European marriage market longer than more recent members. Despite this obvious role of intermarriage as a key indicator of European integration, little is known about marriages between Europeans (‘Euro-marriages’) in the Netherlands. This paper tries to fill this gap by describing the patterns of Euro-marriages in the Netherlands, on the basis of register data on bi-national newlyweds and household structure in the Netherlands since 1995. One of the key findings is that Euro-marriages have not become more popular since 1995 and that this is only to some extent compensated by increased cohabitation.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)126-138
JournalPopulation, Space and Place
Volume20
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014

Keywords

  • marriage
  • Netherlands
  • Europe
  • intermarriage
  • trends
  • patterns
  • SSCI

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