Journal of biosocial science
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Comparative Study
Trends in fertility and intermarriage among immigrant populations in Western Europe as measures of integration.
Demographic data on fertility and intermarriage are useful measures of integration and assimilation. This paper reviews trends in total fertility and intermarriage of foreign populations in Europe and compares them with the trends in fertility of the host population and the sending country. In almost all cases fertility has declined. ⋯ Muslim populations from Turkey, North Africa and South Asia have shown the least decline. Intermarriage is proceeding faster than might be expected in immigrant populations which seemed in economic terms to be imperfectly integrated. Up to 40% of West Indians born in the UK, for example, appear to have white partners as do high proportions of young Maghrebians in France.
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Data on patterns of consanguineous marriage were collected from 5340 families resident in eight cities in the Pakistan province of Punjab. To assess whether social and/or occupational class was interacting with consanguinity, information also was obtained on the hereditary qaum to which each family belonged. In the present generation 46.5% of all marriages were contracted at the level of second cousin or closer, with an average coefficient of inbreeding (F) of 0.0286, and the results indicated that in each of the seventeen qaums there was strong preference for marriage to a close biological relative. However, significant differences existed in the distribution of consanguineous marriage by qaum membership, which could interfere with the interpretation of studies into the biological effects of inbreeding.