ABSTRACT

Considering both non-migrant and migrant couples, this paper studies the effect of cohabiting life partners’ attitudes, resources, and social network compositions on their spouse’s interethnic friendships and acquaintances. Thus, partners are conceptualized as important “third parties” for interethnic relationship formation. Analysing representative German household panel data, I find that partner characteristics play an important role for a person’s interethnic relationships. In particular, a strong positive connection between cohabiting life partners’ interethnic relationships indicates that couples’ social networks merge over time. Partner’s preferences for interethnic contacts mainly exert an indirect influence that is mediated by the partner’s own interethnic relationships and – to some extent – by a person’s preferences.

摘要

考虑到非移民和移民夫妇，本文研究了同居生活伴侣的态度、资源和社交网络构成对其配偶的跨种族友谊和熟人的影响。因此，合作伙伴被概念化为形成种族间关系的重要“第三方”。分析具有代表性的德国家庭面板数据，我发现伴侣特征对一个人的种族间关系起着重要作用。尤其是，同居生活伴侣的种族间关系之间的强烈正相关表明夫妻的社交网络会随着时间的推移而融合。伴侣对种族间接触的偏好主要施加间接影响，这种影响是由伴侣自己的种族间关系以及——在某种程度上——由一个人的偏好所介导的。