Migration and Marriage: Union Formation and Dissolution among Mexican and Mexican-American Women

David P Lindstrom, Brown University
Gabriela Sanchez-Soto, Brown University

In this study we examine the impact of U.S. migration on union formation and dissolution among Mexican and Mexican-American women. We use retrospective data for non-migrant and U.S. return migrant women in Mexico from the 1998 National Retrospective Demographic Survey, and data for Mexican born and Mexican-American women resident in the United States from the 1995 and 2002 NSFG, to construct a pooled sample of union status histories. The pooled sample provides a unique nationally representative sample of Mexican born women resident in Mexico and in the United States and Mexican-American women. We use multi-state hazard regression models to identify the impact of migration experience and the effects of migrant selectivity on union formation and marital stability net of the effects of education, cohort, period, family background, and children.