Family Structure and Father Absence among Immigrant Children: The Role of Migration, Religion and Inequality

This chapter examines differences in the families of ethnic minority and majority youth in four European countries (England, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden). The focus is on the degree to which the father is absent, as indicated by family structure and the strength of the father–child tie. To explain differences, we use three perspectives: a migration perspective, an economic perspective and a cultural perspective. Considerable heterogeneity is observed: some groups have much higher levels of father absence than the majority (sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America), whereas others have somewhat lower levels of father absence (Middle East, North Africa, South Asia). Cultural explanations partly explain the lower prevalence of father absence in some groups while suppressing the higher prevalence of father absence in other groups. Economic disadvantage, in contrast, partly explains the higher prevalence of father absence in some groups while suppressing the lower prevalence of father absence in others.