Study: Immigrant families are more stable than native-born American families

Indian American immigrant families are the most stable.

Immigrant families are closer to the family ideal Americans would love to achieve, according to a new study.

As it turns out, despite the stress of adjusting to a new language, different customs and strange social environment, families who are new to the United States are more stable than native born families, according to a recent report from the Institute of  Family Studies (IFS).

Among immigrant families, those from India are the most stable.

As a group, immigrant families tend to be more stable than families of native-born Americans. Specifically, 72% of immigrants with children are still in their first marriage, whereas the share among native-born Americans is just 60%, the IFS analysis of census data.

About 94% of first-generation Indian Americans with children are stably married; 4% are remarried, and the share of unmarried Indian immigrants with children is only 2%. 

Family stability is also higher among immigrants from other parts of Asia, such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Taiwan, Korea, China, and Japan. More than 80% of immigrant families from these countries comprise two stably married adults with their children.

Behind these numbers are the relatively higher marriage rates and lower divorce rates of immigrants in general. The study found that immigrant families' stability pertained to more than just those from Asia. The conclusion holds true for families from families from other parts of the world too. Most first-generation immigrants remain in their first marriage compared to 60% of native-born families.

The study also shows that the longer a family resides in the U.S., the stability drops. While Indian immigrants have the highest family stability: 94% of Indian immigrants with children are stably married, the share of intact marriage drops to 87% among native-born Indian Americans with children, the study noted.

The rate of immigration from Asia has surpassed the immigration from Latin America. The share of immigrants in the U.S. population is nearing the historic high of the early 20th century when immigration from Europe was at its highest. About one-in-seven people (14%) in the U.S. today, or 45 million, are foreign born.