ABSTRACT
The chapter provides comparative descriptive information about the biography and demographics of partners in binational and national couples. This information draws from surveys to randomly selected partners in national and binational couples, conducted in seven major cities in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland and in-depth interviews to selected participants in the Spanish city surveys. The chapter shows that most partners in binational couples met in the country where they reside, especially if less educated in relative terms. The chapter also reveals that binational couples tend to settle in the male’s country of nationality and that, within the 30–46 age range covered by the study, binational couples on average have fewer children than do national ones. Finally, the statistical analysis reveals that while highly educated individuals have traveled abroad more frequently in their childhood and have learned more foreign languages than have less educated ones, once one controls for education, partners in binational couples do not stand out for their cosmopolitan upbringing (e.g. binational parents; travel abroad as a child; foreign language skills) when compared with partners in national relationships.
