A decomposition of immigrant divorce rates in Australia - Research Note

Journal of Population Research, May, 2001 by Siew-Ean Khoo, Zhongwei Zhao

The results of the decomposition are presented separately for males and females in Table 2. The comparative index of the crude divorce rate [I.sub.c] varies considerably. For both men and women, the highest indices are recorded among China-born migrants, 2.79 for males and 3.06 for females. In contrast, the lowest indices are found among those born in Italy, 0.81 and 0.60 respectively.

The comparative index of the proportion married Im is greater than 1 for almost all immigrant groups. This indicates that the proportion married is generally higher in the immigrant groups than in the total Australian population. Other things being equal, this would lead to a higher crude divorce rate. As expected, high indices (above 1.5) are recorded for migrants born in Greece, Italy, Malta, Turkey, Netherlands, Egypt, Lebanon, former Yugoslavia and China. These populations have relatively few single people compared to the reference population because they either have an older age structure (the European-born who migrated in the 1950s and 1960s), or have a higher proportion of people married at younger ages (migrants from Lebanon and Turkey). In 1991, more than 70 per cent of women aged 20-24 who were born in Lebanon or Turkey were already married compared with 23 per cent of Australian-born women of the same age (Khoo and Shu 1996). Low indices (about 1.0 or less) are observed among people born in Hong Ko ng, Singapore and Thailand, and male migrants from Thailand in particular. These populations have a larger proportion single in the 20-24 year age group, many of whom are likely to be students at Australian tertiary institu-tions (Andressen 1997).

The comparative index [I.sub.a] shows that the effect of the age composition of married people on the crude divorce rate also varies considerably by birthplace, ranging from 0.61 for Hungary-born males to 1.34 for Thailand-born females. High indices are also shown for migrants born in Fiji, Turkey, Vietnam, Philippines and Hong Kong. These are largely new migrants, and the age structure of the married population is compara-tively young in these groups. This contributes to higher crude divorce rates because the divorce rate is usually higher among younger adults, as shown in Figure 1. The low indices for migrants from European countries, between 0.6 and 0.8, reflect the older age compositions of their married populations, which would lower their crude divorce rates.

The variation in the comparative index of the age-specific divorce rates for married people [I.sub.r] from 0.44 for women born in Sri Lanka to 1.92 for women born in Thailand, is much smaller than that in the comparative index of the crude divorce rate [I.sub.c] While in most cases, groups with a high value of [I.sub.c] also have a high value of [I.sub.r] there are some noticeable exceptions. These include migrants born in Turkey and Lebanon for whom is greater than 1, but [I.sub.r] is less than 1. This indicates that the high crude divorce rates in these two groups are the result of a high proportion of married people and a high proportion of young people among the married population. The divorce rate of the married population in these groups is actually lower than that of the married total population after standardizing for age and proportion married. A substantial positive difference between [I.sub.c] and [I.sub.r] is also observed for migrants born in Vietnam, although their [I.sub.r] is still greater tha n 1. In contrast, for migrants from the former USSR and Hungary, and for men born in Thailand, the [I.sub.r] index is greater than the [I.sub.c] index. Their actual divorce level is therefore higher than that indicated by the crude divorce rate.