Interethnic Marriages Reflect Distances Between Ethnic Groups

The proportion of interethnic marriages in Russia varies widely depending on ethnicity. How common mixed-ethnicity families are depends largely on couples' ability to overcome cultural, religious and social differences between their ethnic groups and also on settlement and migration patterns. In his ground-breaking research, Eugeny Soroko, Senior Research Fellow at the HSE Institute of Demography, measured the relative ‘distances’ between ethnic Russians and ten other ethnic groups using a tool he invented – the mixed family matrix.

According to Soroko's estimates based on data from the 2010 National Census, 12% of all married couples in Russia are between people of different ethnicities. Ethnic groups vary in how likely their members are to marry out of the group; e.g. Chechens, Ingush, Kalmyks and Yakuts usually marry people of their own ethnicity, while more than 40% of Komi and Mordovian families are of mixed ethnicity, notes Soroko in his paper 'Ethnically Mixed Families in the Russian Federation' published in the Demographic Review (Vol. 1, no. 4, 2015).

Different ethnic groups that live in the former Soviet Union vary in terms of interethnic marriage rates. Based on the husband's ethnicity, the highest rates of interethnic marriages are reported among Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians, and the lowest among Kazakhs, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, and Kyrgyz. Labour migration to Russia has contributed to interethnic marriages among nationals of the new independent states of the former USSR, while a relative decrease in mixed-ethnicity families observed between the 2002 and 2010 censuses can be explained by an inflow of mono-ethnic immigrant families from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, according to Soroko.

Soroko also notes an important gender aspect of interethnic marriages: in all ethnic groups he has studied, women are less likely than men to marry outside their nationality.

Soroko's study 'Ethnically mixed married couples based on data from the 2002 and 2010 national censuses' consists of two parts, one focusing on some of the new independent nations that used to populate Soviet republics and the other examining certain ethnicities currently inhabiting the Russian Federation. The former is based on calculations covering 16 ethnicities, including 14 principal nations of the corresponding Soviet republics, as well as Jews and Germans. The second part of the study analyses data on 11 ethnic groups inhabiting respective national republics of the Russian Federation. A review of individual micro data from the censuses enabled Soroko to examine the gender aspect of interethnic marriages.

Soroko used the data to assess the proximity between different ethnic groups and thus the relative importance of cultural barriers separating them.

Labour Migration Affects the Rates of Mixed Marriages

Soroko studied the rates of ethnically mixed marriages separately for men (Table 1) and women (Table 2) from ethnic groups of the former Soviet Union.

Based on the husband's ethnicity, the highest proportion of mixed couples is observed among Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians. In the Baltic states, interethnic marriages exceed 90%, reaching 96.7% for Latvians, 94.4% for Lithuanians and 93.7% for Estonians.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, nations with the lowest rates of interethnic marriages include Kazakhs (22.3%), followed by Armenians (30.4%) and Azerbaijanis (37.4%).

Interestingly, in Central Asia, the rates of interethnic marriage vary widely across nations, from 77.7% for Uzbeks to 41.5% for Kyrgyz.

According to Soroko, the above data from the 2002 census reflect the cumulative statistics of interethnic marriage from the previous period as well as interethnic differences in mortality and, especially migration.

Table 1. Ethnically homogeneous and mixed marriages by the husband's ethnicity, Russia, 2002; number of ethnic groups of the former Soviet Union currently living primarily outside the Russian Federation

Husband's ethnicity	Number of family units	Ethnicities of husband and wife are the same	Ethnicities of husband and wife differ	Proportion of ethnically mixed couples, %
Kazakh	112,604	87,535	25,069	22.3
Armenian	206,569	143,838	62,731	30.4
Azerbaijani	124,493	77,924	46,569	37.4
Kyrgyz	4,689	2,744	1,945	41.5
Turkmen	6,357	2,738	3,619	56.9
Georgian	38,141	12,436	25,705	67.4
Tajik	17,210	5,116	12,094	70.3
Jew	28,493	7,140	21,353	74.9
Uzbek	21,983	4,903	17,080	77.7
Ukrainian	535,861	107,126	428,735	80.0
Moldovan	33,790	6,001	27,789	82.2
Belarusian	141,936	20,297	121,639	85.7
German	102,552	11,523	91,029	88.8
Estonian	4,115	258	3,857	93.7
Lithuanian	8,279	467	7,812	94.4
Latvian	4,413	145	4,268	96.7

Source: Soroko's calculations based on Rosstat data (using SuperWeb tools)

Changes in the rates of interethnic unions observed between the censuses are shown in Figure 1. Over the eight years, the greatest changes were reported among Kyrgyz, Tajiks and Uzbeks—nations with the highest rates of labour migration to Russia. The decrease in interethnic marriage in these nations between the censuses is probably due to an increasing number of couples, rather than individuals, coming to work in Russia.

Women Less Likely to Enter Interethnic Marriages

The likelihood of marrying outside one's ethnic group tends to be lower for women in the studied groups—e.g., Azerbaijani men are twice as likely as Azerbaijani women to marry other ethnicities.

According to Soroko, gender differences are lower and usually do not exceed 10 percentage points (p.p.) in groups that are generally more likely to form ethnically mixed families, such as Ukrainians, Moldovans, Germans, Belarusians and Balts.

The greatest gender differences in terms of marrying members of other ethnicities are characteristic of ethnic groups inhabiting the Caucasus (Azerbaijanis, Armenians and Georgians) and Central Asia (except Kazakhs).

Table 2. Ethnically homogeneous and mixed marriages by the wife's ethnicity, Russia, 2002; ethnic groups of the former Soviet Union currently living primarily outside the Russian Federation.

Wife's ethnicity	Number of family units	Ethnicities of husband and wife are the same	Ethnicities of husband and wife differ	Proportion of ethnically mixed family units,%
Azerbaijani	86,647	77,924	8,723	10.1
Armenian	165,067	143,838	21,229	12.9
Kazakh	108,068	87,535	20,533	19.0
Kyrgyz	3,722	2,744	978	26.3
Tajik	7,594	5,116	2,478	32.6
Turkmen	4,483	2,738	1,745	38.9
Georgian	20,613	12,436	8,177	39.7
Jew	17029	7,140	9,889	58.1
Uzbek	12,361	4,903	7,458	60.3
Moldovan	24,870	6,001	18,869	75.9
Ukrainian	469,189	107,126	362,063	77.2
Belarusian	128,437	20,297	108,140	84.2
German	91,128	11,523	79,605	87.4
Lithuanian	6,333	467	5,866	92.6
Estonian	3,656	258	3,398	92.9
Latvian	3,739	145	3,594	96.1

Source: Soroko's calculations based on Rosstat data

Changes in the rates of mixed marriages for women between the censuses are shown in Figure 2. While the overall proportion of interethnic marriages across the 16 ethnic groups decreased by 17 p.p. between 2002 and 2010, the situation was different for certain ethnicities. "Almost symmetrically, the proportion of interethnic marriages increased in eight ethnic groups and decreased in the other eight, with the greatest declines of more than 7 p.p. observed among Uzbeks, Tajiks, Moldovans and Azerbaijanis," Soroko notes.

These changes can be illustrated by the case of Uzbeks—the proportion of their interethnic marriages dropped by 24 p.p. due to an increase in labour migration involving Uzbek couples rather than individuals.

In contrast, an increase in interethnic marriages by 5 p.p. or more was observed in ethnic groups less involved in labour migration, such as Germans, Estonians and Lithuanians.

Fewer Interethnic Marriages in National Republics

The researcher also examined interethnic unions in ethnic groups living in all of Russia, as well as in its constituent national republics vs. the rest of the country.

Not surprisingly, compared to the national average, interethnic marriages are twice less common—just 14%—in ethnically homogeneous national republics.

This finding is particularly true for Chechnya where just one in 91 men is married to a non-Chechen woman, followed by three other ethnic groups—Ingush, Kalmyks and Yakuts—where interethnic families stand below 10%. On the other end, more than one third of Komi living in the Komi Republic are married out of their ethnic group.

Another factor affecting the share of interethnic marriages is the settlement pattern of various ethnicities across Russia. Of all national republics, Tatarstan has the lowest proportion of families of the relevant ethnicity, including interethnic couples, since ethnic Tatars tend to settle widely across the country. In contrast, ethnic Yakuts tend to settle mainly in their national Republic of Sakha.

Even more interesting are the rates of interethnic families in the rest of Russia, i.e., outside the national republics. These findings are indicative of what cultural barriers, if any, exist between different ethnic groups (Table 3).

Notably, the proportion of mixed marriages in the selected ethnic groups is less than 50% on average in all of Russia, but significantly higher outside the national republics —exceeding 50% for Kalmyks, Udmurts, Mordovians, Yakuts and Komi.

Table 3. Ethnically homogeneous and mixed family units by the husband's ethnicity; selected ethnic groups living outside the corresponding national republics in Russia, 2002.

Husband's ethnicity	Number of family units	Proportion of family units outside the national republic relative to all family units in Russia, %	Ethnicities of husband and wife are the same	Ethnicities of husband and wife differ	Proportion of ethnically mixed family units, %
Chechen	46,006	23.57	38,967	7,039	15.3
Ingush	7,127	14.20	5,085	2,042	28.7
Mari	48,076	49.65	30,133	17,943	37.3
Tatar	560,703	64.42	327,127	233,576	41.7
Bashkir	73,316	28.63	38,178	35,138	47.9
Chuvash	129,619	48.93	64,852	64,767	50.0
Kalmyk	2,170	8.92	1,072	1,098	50.6
Udmurt	29,714	28.20	12,198	17,516	58.9
Mordovian	101,021	68.18	33,052	67,969	67.3
Yakut (Sakha)	1,030	1.69	250	780	75.7
Komi	5,026	12.50	974	4,052	80.6

Source: Soroko's calculations based on Rosstat data

In the period between the censuses, the overall proportion of interethnic families in the sample stood at 45% in both 2002 and 2010, with some minor changes in certain ethnicities. For Ingush, the share of mixed marriages with other ethnicities dropped by 7 p.p., and an even smaller decrease was observed for Kalmyks, Yakuts, Udmurts, Komi and Chuvash. There was also a small increase, within 2.5 p.p., in the proportion of ethnically mixed unions in five other ethnic groups, including Chechens, where the increase was the highest, Mari, Tatars, Bashkirs, and Mordovians.

Gender Asymmetry in Interethnic Marriages

As to the likelihood for women from the studied ethnic groups to marry outside their ethnicity, the share of such unions stands below 10% for Chechen, Ingush and Kalmyk women and does not exceed 54% for women of any other ethnicity in the sample, with the median of 29.6% for all groups taken together. In general, women and men are more likely to enter interethnic marriages when they live outside their respective national republic (the difference exceeds 30 p.p.)

However, a significant gender asymmetry is observed across the ethnic groups; e.g., the proportion of interethnic unions for Mari women is 9 p.p. higher and for Yakut women it is 6 p.p. higher than for men of the same ethnicities, while for Ingush women it is 14 p.p. lower than for Ingush men.

In the period between the censuses, most of the studied ethnic groups showed a slight decline in the proportion of ethnically mixed unions based on the wife's ethnicity, according to Soroko.

Russian and Ukrainians Have Closer Ties

The researcher measured the different groups' tendency to form interethnic marriages by using both censuses' micro data to build a matrix (Table 4) containing 15,080,000 ethnically homogeneous (diagonal) and 2,060,000 ethnically mixed (off-diagonal) couples—the latter stand at 12% of all couples included in the matrix.

Table 4. Matrix of Ethnic Combinations in Married Couples, Russia, 2010, number of couples (fragment).

Husband's ethnicity	Wife's ethnicity
	Russian	Tatar	Ukrainian	Bashkir	Chechen	Armenian	Mordovian
Russian	12,255,162	158,277	172,145	27,963	725	14,879	39,267
Tatar	170,031	521,326	4,402	40,381	109	294	1,646
Ukrainian	212,218	5,408	58,808	1,205	25	548	1,154
Bashkir	26,484	34,679	839	156,002	7	35	198
Chechen	4,443	245	164	45	210,093	42	14
Armenian	52,546	1,042	1,557	201	22	148,271	147
Mordovian	46,975	2,026	1,111	286	11	68	55,521

Source: Soroko's calculations

This matrix makes it ​possible to calculate the rates of interethnic preferences  (where i,j is the combination of ethnic groups in the couple). Inversely related to ethnic preferences are interethnic distances, which are calculated using the following equation: .

The resulting distribution of interethnic distances is presented in Table 5, where the value of one means no ethnic preference and values below one mean increased preferences concerning the spouse’s ethnicity in an interethnic union, while values above one suggest significant barriers to marriage between the ethnicities in question. One of the findings is that Ukrainians (0.66) are the closest ethnicity to Russians compared to all other studied ethnic groups.

Table 5. Assessment of interethnic distances between ethnic Russians and 10 other ethnicities based on the prevalence of mixed-ethnicity families, Russia, 2010

Ethnicity	Distance
Ukrainian	0.66
Mordovian	0.68
Udmurt	0.71
Armenian	0.74
Chuvash	0.75
Tatar	0.84
Kazakh	0.97
Azerbaijani	1.03
Bashkir	1.55
Chechen	2.03

Source: Soroko's calculations

To conclude, a study of interethnic marriages can give important insights into existing cultural, religious and other barriers between ethnic groups.

 

Author: Olga Sobolevskaya, June 05, 2015