Educational Assortative Mating: Exploring Gendered Patterns and Role of Mode of Entry Among Legal Immigrants in the United States

Marital partnering choices are predictors of social structure, stratification, generation and sustenance of social inequality, intergenerational effects, gender relations, marital stability, fertility preferences and children’s well-being At the same time, one of the enduring concerns of a high immigrant society such as the United States is not only the question of how many to admit, but also who to admit, the latter having implications on both labor market prospects as well in the process of family formation. Hence and not surprisingly, there is a growing interest in the marital partnering-family formation aspects of immigration. Previous research on assortative mating patterns has tended to focus on intermarriages along the lines of racial, ethnic, nativity statuses. Present study employing the New Immigrant Survey (NIS) data explores marital partnering based on educational attainment with a focus on gendered patterns as it relates to the mode of entry to legal permanent residency status. NIS is the only data set that documents in detail the process of securing legal permanent residency. Given that gender role attitudes still vary between men and women, there exist gender asymmetries in evaluation of traits documented in literature. The asymmetry has particularly found to be noticeable in the immigrant marriage market applicable to those moving from traditional-developing to modern-developed countries. Marriage migration of women to developed countries can arguably be seen as a manifestation of a kind of the exchange theory. Women exchange admittance to living in economically developed countries with their ascribed characteristics such as physical looks and parental socioeconomic status. Higher educated immigrant women are more likely to marry homogamously or hypergamously relative to their male counterparts. Since educational attainment is directly related to the likelihood of acquiring permanent residency via merit-based-employer sponsorship, there exists a gendered dimension to marital choices and procuring the legal permanent residency.