The timing of family commitments in the early work career:Work-family trajectories of young adults in Flanders

OBJECTIVE This article examines the diverse ways in which young adults develop both their professional career and family life in the years immediately after they complete their education. Building a career and starting a family often occur simultaneously in this stage of life. By studying the simultaneous developments in these life domains, we can gain a better understanding of this complex interplay. METHODS The data consist of a sample of 1,657 young adults born in 1976 who were interviewed as part of the SONAR survey of Flanders at ages 23, 26, and 29 about their education, their entry into and early years on the labour market, and their family life. Sequence analysis is used to study the timing of union formation and having children among these young adults, as well as how these events are related to their work career. Multinomial regression analysis is applied to help us gain a better understanding of the extent to which these life course patterns are determined by education and economic status at the start of the career. RESULTS The results reveal a set of work-family trajectories which vary in terms of the extent of labour market participation and the type and timing of family formation. Various aspects of the trajectory are found to be determined by different dimensions of an individual’s educational career (duration, level, field of study). Education is more relevant for women than for men, as a man’s trajectory is more likely than a woman’s to be determined by the first job. CONCLUSIONS By using a simultaneous approach which takes into account both family and work, this life course analysis confirms that men have a head start on the labour market, and examines the factors which influence the distinct trajectories of young women and men

Echtscheiding bij personen van Turkse en Marokkaanse herkomst. 1: Literatuurstudie

Review of research literature on divorce among persons of Turkish and Moroccan origin in Belgium.nrpages: 183status: publishe

Beyond l'Auberge Espagnole: The Effect of Individual Mobility on the Formation of Intra-European Couples

This paper focuses on intra-European partnership formation in three European countries: Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Intra‐European mobility has been actively promoted and stimulated by the European Commission (e.g., free movement of persons, the Erasmus student exchange program). One of the reasons for this promotion is that exchanges and relationships between Europeans of different descent are seen as a core indicator of the success of the European project. In this paper, we address the question to what extent intra-European mobility fosters partnerships between Europeans of different descent. Intra-European mobility can create opportunities both to meet partners from other European countries and to accumulate the necessary capital (economic, cultural, linguistic, mobility) to engage in a relationship with a foreign European. We use original data on European (binational) couples, collected in 2012 in the three countries (EUMARR survey), to study the choice of native men and women to engage in a relationship with either a foreign-born European partner or a partner from the own native country. We apply a broader life course perspective that captures migration and mobility experiences prior to the relationship as causal antecedents leading to an intra-European partnership. Results based on logistic regression models suggest that there is an individual effect of long stays abroad and short mobility experiences in (early) adulthood on having an intra-European partner (in comparison with a native partner)

Social embeddedness in a harmonized Europe: the social networks of European migrants with a native partner in Belgium and the Netherland

Although intra-European migration is often considered relatively easy to realize given European citizens' right to freedom of movement, settlement in another European country can still be experienced as socially disruptive. Insights in the insertion processes of European migrants, nevertheless, remain rather scarce. In this study, we analyse the social networks of European nationals with a native partner in Belgium and the Netherlands. The analysis is based on survey data from the EUMARR project (n = 576). First, we study the size and composition of European migrants' local family and friendship networks, and the frequency of contact with these networks. Second, we connect intra-EU movers' insertion routes to investments in transnational networks in their home country. The results reveal how size, composition and contact with the local and transnational network change over time. Children help to maintain contact with both the local and transnational family network and form a bridge for parents to meet own friends in the host country. Moreover, having own friends and own family around matters for contact frequency with the local networks

Social networks and feelings of social loneliness after migration: The case of European migrants with a native partner in Belgium

This paper studies the social networks and feelings of social loneliness of a group of migrants that, because of their European origins and their mixed relations with a native partner, might be easily integrating socially. The data are a sample of 237 (first-generation) European migrants with a native partner living in Belgium, drawn from the EUMARR study on binational couples. First, their social networks and feelings of loneliness are compared to those of natives in a uninational partnership. Second, structural equation modelling is performed to study the effect of various characteristics of local and transnational networks of family and friends (such as size, composition and intensity of contact) on feelings of social loneliness, as well as the link with migration history. Results reveal that European migrants with a native partner experience more feelings of social loneliness than do the native population. A larger local network, with more own relatives and more (own, not met through the partner) friends, as well as more frequent contact with local friends contribute to lower levels of social loneliness. Transnational contact and the share of natives in the local network have no impact. The findings contribute to a better understanding of the social life of European migrants and show how, even with a native partner, they are still affected by the migration move in relation to feelings of social loneliness