The amount of comments espousing the idea that stable marriages can't be happy is off-putting to me and what I see as a reflection of how Americans value marriage.
Of course, the instant caveat is that defining Stable = In First Marriage doesn't mean they are necessarily "happy."<p>Huge cultural stigmas and structures that reinforce stability family structures is likely at play. Similar to how other stats show Religious folks have a lower rate of divorce. Partially because of the forces encouraging to not divorce, both positively with huge support networks to keep couples together, and negatively with implicit shame for those who break up. And also partially that many who divorce may also leave said faith (eg self-selection Religiosity). This second component of course doesn't apply to immigrants.<p>Plus, a "no divorce" policy can also create systems where spousal/domestic abuse can run rampant and no recourse to escape. So it's not always the best metric to optimize for.
I'm not sure if "stable" is the correct word here.<p>Story time. I'm 27, immigrant living in the U.S. for the past 12+ years. We moved here from Iran when I was in highschool and now I'm a PhD student in computer science. I have been in the school since we moved in here. I have a brother and a sister who are 12 and 15 years older than me. They were not able to move here because they were over 21 years old. I work 2 jobs (senior software engineer and teaching at university), own a house and support my family in Iran. Iranian currency has been devalued by x20 times at least since we moved in so economy is messed up over there. I wouldn't call it a stable life. It's more like a survival.<p>I'm not alone. I see international students (or couples) who work extremely hard to be able to get a job after graduation. Immigration is rewarding but not an easy path.<p>I haven't been able to go to back to Iran and visit my friends and family members but I am scared being detained and used for the purpose of "hostage diplomacy" by the Iranian government.
This isn't necessarily something to celebrate. "Not divorced" doesn't automatically mean stable. I'm Indian, and know so many couples (mainly older) who have been locked in loveless and joyless marriages for decades. Divorce is such a taboo subject in the community that it isn't something you can even consider. If you peel back the curtain you will see a shocking amount of infidelity, emotional/mental/physical abuse, marital rape and more, not exactly stuff I would associate with "stable" marriages.
Seems like there are a lot of confounding factors here.<p>For many people marriage is a prerequisite to immigrate to the us or bring their family over, and people risk deportation if they divorce. So saying that immigrant families are more stable can be akin to saying that H1B workers are more loyal to their company.
There doesn’t appear to be any comparison of ages between immigrants and natives. The age rage is “between 18 and 64”.<p>That’s a big range.<p>Too big.<p>How do I know — from the stats given — if the disparity is simply a matter of age?<p>If the native average age is 45 while the immigrant average age is 35, the ‘result’ may simply be a matter of the natives having had more time to get divorced.<p>Something is screwy. I smell an agenda.
Isn't this directly related to the divorce rates in their respective countries of origin? IMO, this plays a stronger role in the divorce rates than anything else. One number I would love to see if how the subsequent generations of the immigrants do, both divorce rates and financially.
Could it be that this actually tracks more with wealth than being an immigrant? Looking at the numbers in the study, those richer immigrant groups like Indians seem to skew the data away from poorer groups like South Americans.
My favourite book of the past few years, Eric Kaufmann's "Shall the religious inherit the earth", points out that some religious minorities, often quite extreme ones, are much better at having children, and are likely to spread at the expense of the mainstream. This cultural difference in family stability reminds me of that.<p>I would like to believe that the US and Europe can pick up whatever enables poor immigrant families to maintain stable families and viable reproductive structures – without buying into the more extreme aspects of some pro-natalist religious cultures.
Let's not forget how the divorce system in the US HEAVILY favors women - perhaps more men would marry if the consequences of a bad marriage weren't so devastating.
They are not. They are normal. Would-be opinion-forming bullshit articles are supporting the bad guys, by delivering easy to refute narratives which ultimately support immigrant haters. I'm so sick of this good/bad scheme predisposed to paint immigrants bad.<p>Edit: from my perspective a new strategy of far-right idiots is to propagate "positive immigrant narratives" which then prove wrong, just because they have been exaggerated from the start. Cheap psychological trick, still effective.