Marriage in two cultures

This paper reports some of the data collected in a survey of minority groups of Asian ethnic extraction and a white British comparison group in the West Midlands, UK. The issues addressed here concern marriage choices and customs discussed in relation to Tajfel's (1978) intergroup theories and Gordon's (1964) models of assimilation. It was hypothesized that the minority ethnic groups would differ from the majority groups both in the clarity of their definition of possible marriage partner and in the strength of their feeling for endogamous marriage; and that, since exogamous marriage is the most extreme aspect of assimilation, attitudes towards it would be related to other forms of assimilation. A further issue is the extent of conflict occurring between first and second generations in ethnic minority groups, particularly on the point of marriage practices. This was investigated by relating the responses of parents and young person within the same family. Based on this analysis and reports from respondents themselves, such conflict seems to be far less endemic than is supposed.