Is There an Employment Advantage for Immigrant Women Who Marry Natives in Italy?

In this study, we assess the impact of intermarriage on employment outcomes among immigrant women, compared with endogamous (immigrant women married to immigrants) and unmarried women. We measure employment outcomes using three variables: a binary outcome (employed or not), a continuous outcome (average weekly hours of work), and a proxy for underemployment. The linear probability model reveals that intermarried immigrant women are nearly 44 percentage points less likely to be employed than their unmarried counterparts, and 6.8 percentage points less than endogamous women. Women in endogamous marriages also have around 37 percentage points lower likelihood of employment than unmarried women. Nonlinear regressions, probit, and logit models confirm the results. With regard to the intensity of employment, women in any marriage type work on average nearly 16 hours less per week than their unmarried counterparts. Moreover, women in both marriage types show a higher probability of being underemployed than their unmarried counterparts, with probabilities ranging between 7 and 5 percentage points.