Intergenerational power shift and the rise of nonarranged marriages among refugees

Abstract

The expe ri ences of war and ref u gee sta tus can alter intrafamily dynam ics, with impli ca tions for fam ily for ma tion, includ ing mar riage. We use the nation ally rep(TDHSS) to con duct a dura tion anal y sis of mar riage out comes among Syrian ref ugees in Turkey, track ing women through out their res i dence in pre war Syria (before the con flict began in 2011), post war Syria (after the con flict began but before arrival in Turkey), and Turkey. We find that early mar riage was more prominent among refu gees who were unmar ried at the time of migra tion than among those mar ried before migra tion;the mean mar riage age dropped from 19.6 in pre war Syria to 19.1 in post war Syria and 18.1 in Turkey. Using the TDHSS and pre war Syrian sur veys, we show that this find ing aligns with the observed declines in house hold income and young women's oppor tu nity cost of mar riage. Our dura tion anal y sis also reveals a nota ble shift from tra di tional arranged mar riages to more mod ern mar riage forms among ref u gees in Turkey. An inter gen er a tional power shift might drive the shift toward nonarranged mar riages. After arrival in Turkey, wealth and employ ment of par ents decline among refu gees. In con trast, Syrian youth in Turkey have higher ageadjusted employ ment rates than in pre war Syria. Moreover, nonarranged mar riages increase more among demo graphic groups with stron ger inter gen er a tional power shifts than among groups with weaker shifts.