Immigrant parents are catching up on their Danish counterparts when it comes to failed marriages, according to a new report from the national welfare research centre, Det nationale Forskningscenter for Velfærd (SFI).
Every fourth marriage involving parents from ethnic minorities is ending in divorce, compared to every third ethnic Danish marriage.
“Divorces in ethnic minority families to a large extent occur in families with social problems – and almost always at the mother’s initiative,” SFI wrote in its press release.
“Often the marriages endure long-term conflict before divorce becomes a reality because the parents hail from societies that don’t have a tradition of divorce. Their roles as divorced parents can be difficult for them to handle.”
READ MORE: Children of divorcees have shorter educations
Depends on background
Conflict within a marriage can often found lead to violence because of the shame associated with it in certain cultures where the idea of divorce remains taboo.
The report – which focuses mostly on non-Western immigrants – is the first of its kind to also focus on interviewing the children, and it showed that the divorce rate depends a lot on where the families come from.
For instance, three out of every four Somali parents live apart from one another, compared to every fifth Turkish parent.
