Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Cross‐border marriages in pre‐ and post‐handover Hong Kong

Cross‐border marriages in pre‐ and post‐handover Hong Kong Given the ever‐increasing economic and social ties with the Mainland, Hong Kong‐Mainland cross‐border marriage patterns experienced significant changes after the handover. The proportion of cross‐border marriages only accounted for 2% of marriages registered in Hong Kong in the pre‐handover period but jumped to 34.7% after the handover. This study examines the impact of stronger economic ties and weakened social and cultural boundaries on the patterns of assortative mating in cross‐border marriages. As most of the cross‐border workers from Hong Kong are males, they have increasing opportunities for social interaction with Mainland women in communities and social circles in the Mainland. After the handover, the language skills of residents on both sides showed significant improvement and this can enhance the possibility of finding a marriage partner across the border. Empirical results suggest a weaker positive assortative mating in respect of age and educational attainment among Hong Kong husband‐Mainland wife couples after the handover. Previous studies suggest that marital partner selection reflects the strength of social boundaries and the strength of these boundaries should be stronger for cross‐border marriages. The results of this paper support the view that stronger economic ties and weakened social and cultural boundaries do promote cross‐border marriages and negative assortative mating in these marriages. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Population Space and Place Wiley

Cross‐border marriages in pre‐ and post‐handover Hong Kong

Population Space and Place , Volume 29 (2) – Mar 1, 2023

Loading next page...
 
/lp/wiley/cross-border-marriages-in-pre-and-post-handover-hong-kong-rVBd4ww2yr

References (39)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
© 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
ISSN
1544-8444
eISSN
1544-8452
DOI
10.1002/psp.2611
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Given the ever‐increasing economic and social ties with the Mainland, Hong Kong‐Mainland cross‐border marriage patterns experienced significant changes after the handover. The proportion of cross‐border marriages only accounted for 2% of marriages registered in Hong Kong in the pre‐handover period but jumped to 34.7% after the handover. This study examines the impact of stronger economic ties and weakened social and cultural boundaries on the patterns of assortative mating in cross‐border marriages. As most of the cross‐border workers from Hong Kong are males, they have increasing opportunities for social interaction with Mainland women in communities and social circles in the Mainland. After the handover, the language skills of residents on both sides showed significant improvement and this can enhance the possibility of finding a marriage partner across the border. Empirical results suggest a weaker positive assortative mating in respect of age and educational attainment among Hong Kong husband‐Mainland wife couples after the handover. Previous studies suggest that marital partner selection reflects the strength of social boundaries and the strength of these boundaries should be stronger for cross‐border marriages. The results of this paper support the view that stronger economic ties and weakened social and cultural boundaries do promote cross‐border marriages and negative assortative mating in these marriages.

Journal

Population Space and PlaceWiley

Published: Mar 1, 2023

Keywords: assortative mating; China; migration; native‐immigrant marriage

There are no references for this article.