[Seminaire CREM] Présentation de Rozenn HOTTE, Université de Tours, Laboratoire d'Economie d'Orléans (LEO)
Until Citizenship Do Us Part? Mixed Marriages and the Timing of Divorce in Response to Nationality Laws
Thursday 15 October, 12:15
Abstract:
Citizenship policies may affect not only migrants’ legal status but also their family decisions. This paper examines whether nationality laws governing access to French citizenship through marriage and associated residence rights distort marital dissolution decisions among mixed couples. To identify this effect, we exploit two complementary sources of variation in incentives to acquire French nationality through marriage. First, non-European spouses derive greater benefits from French citizenship than European spouses, while individuals who were already naturalized before marriage have no incentive to remain married for nationality purposes. Using a triple-difference design, we compare divorce rates before and after the citizenship eligibility threshold across couples differing along these two dimensions. We find that non-European spouses who had not acquired French nationality before marriage are significantly more likely to divorce once eligibility is reached. Second, we exploit three successive reforms that changed the marriage-duration thresholds governing access to nationality and secure residence status. This quasi-natural experiment confirms our main findings: extending the waiting period delays divorce, whereas shortening it accelerates marital dissolution. Importantly, the 1998 reform changed only the naturalization threshold, providing evidence that access to nationality itself affects divorce timing. These findings provide evidence that nationality laws shape private family decisions and induce strategic timing of divorce. We further provide suggestive evidence that such policies reduce individual well-being, consistent with couples remaining in marriages longer than they would otherwise choose.
Co-écrit avec Esther Delesalle (IEDES - Paris 1)
