Living arrangements of adult children of immigrants in selected European countries

BACKGROUND The living arrangements of adult children of immigrants are shaped across Europe by both the dominant norms of mainstream society and the intergenerational transmission of values and practices. OBJECTIVE The paper describes the heterogeneous scenario across Europe in three specific living arrangements (living with parents, in a partnership, and, among them, being in a non-marital cohabitation) by developing a multiple origin / multiple destination analysis based on migratory generation, and by questioning adaptation and socialization hypotheses. METHODS The 2014 ad-hoc module of the EU Labour Force Survey provides significant insights on young adults aged 20-34 in eight EU countries. The propensity to experience the three specific behaviors is estimated through logit models aiming at comparing South and North-West Europe. RESULTS Adult children of immigrants mostly tend to resemble the majority groups in the different destination contexts. Nevertheless, contextual factors cannot explain the whole intra-European heterogeneity. Results are not fully consistent with the expected gradual adaptation across migratory generation and some differences based on the area of origin persist in all the destination areas, especially for the decision to experience a non-marital cohabitation. Young adults originating from South-East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa show stronger influence of their cultural inheritance than the other groups. CONTRIBUTION By developing comparative research on living arrangements among immigrants and their descendants, we contribute to the theoretical debate giving evidence of prevalence of the adaptation hypothesis in the exit from parental home and family formation and the dominance of a socialization effect in the type of union.