The research, which was undertaken by Júlia Mikolai and Hill Kulu, both of University of St Andrews, investigated how partnerships, fertility, and employment affected the lives of migrants during their first five years of UK life.
Recent studies have highlighted that childbearing and partnerships, as well as childbearing and employment trajectories, are closely related and need to be studied jointly. However, no study has analysed the complex interrelationships between these three life domains for immigrants to the UK.
Using nine waves of Understanding Society, the researchers found three types of joint trajectories.
- Immigrants in the first group (‘single, childless, students’) arrived as, and largely remain, single and childless and are either in education, or part-time employment when they arrive.
- The second group (‘partnered, childless, full-time employed’) consisted of immigrants who arrived as single and childless but later became partnered and parents. They are largely in full-time employment.
- Finally, the third group represented family migrants; individuals in this group arrived as married and half of them also already had at least one child at the time of arrival. Five years after migration, almost all of them have married and have become parents. Individuals in this group are either employed or inactive.
However, further analysis revealed significant differences in employment patterns between migrant men and women. While most men are in education or in full-time employment after arrival in the UK, a large share of women stayed inactive, especially among married women.
Although many native women are likely to work part-time or stay at home after childbirth, the low employment rates among partnered migrant women with children was striking.
The report suggests that better employment opportunities need to be targeted at migrant women during the first five years of UK life, especially if they choose to get married or have children.
Location differences
Immigrants from South Asia (India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh) were most likely to belong to the ‘family migrants’ cluster, whereas those from Africa tend to be in the ‘single, childless, students’ cluster. European, Western, and Caribbean immigrants’ trajectories are more likely to be characterised as ‘partnered, childless, full-time employed’.
EmploymentEthnicity and immigrationFamily and households
