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Men and women born in the Netherlands to Moroccan migrants prefer to get married and have children later in life, compared to their parents, reveals a study conducted by the Dutch Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute and published in Statistics Netherlands’ Annual Report on Integration 2018.
The conclusion brought by the survey pinpoints the differences in relationship formation between native Dutch people and second-generation migrants of Moroccan descent. It mainly focuses on the dissimilarities between younger (1990) and older (1980) second-generation men and women.
Findings suggest that unlike their parents, few second-generation Moroccans in the Netherlands tie the knot at a young age. The report measures the gap between Dutch-Moroccans who were born in 1980 and their peers born in the 1990.
Talking numbers, the study reveals that the percentage of second-generation Moroccans born in 1980 and married at a young age dropped significantly among Moroccan-Dutch men and women born in 1990.
The same trend has been noticed when it comes to 26-year-old second generation Moroccans. «A decline is seen among the Turkish second generation (from 55 to 38 percent) as well as the Moroccan second generation (from 39 to 30 percent)», wrote the Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek.
In fact, less than 17% of second-generation Moroccans born in 1980 got married when they were 21 years old. The trend changes for those born in 1990 as only 8.6% of them decided to tie the knot at the same age.
On the other hand, 39.9% of Dutch-Moroccan 26-year-olds born in 1980 got married while 30.1% of those born in 1990 did the same thing.
Motherhood
Marriage is not the only aspect that witnessed change for second-generation Moroccans in the Netherlands. «The second generation of Turkish or Moroccan descent who were born in 1990 are marrying later and have children later compared to those born ten years previously (1980)», explained the same study.
The share of 21-year-old mothers of Moroccan background is smaller among women born in 1990 compared to those born in 1980. Indeed, only 5.9% of second-generation Moroccan women (1990) were mothers by the age of 21, while 12% of those born in 1980 had babies at the same age.
This trend has also affected the people these young men and women prefer to marry. According to the findings of the survey, second-generation Moroccans in the Netherlands are more likely to marry someone from the same background.
90% of Moroccan 26-year-olds married people with the same background. «In the Moroccan origin group, the share (of people married to someone born in Morocco) declined from 70 through to 29 percent» for Moroccan second-generation.
For the record, statistics revealed by the Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek have been based on chapter 7 from the Annual Report on Integration. The latter «addresses cohabitation without being married, as well as differences among the second generation between people with one versus two parents born outside of the Netherlands», concluded the same source.
