Population 2014, n° 1

Abstract

Concordance Between Reported Ethnic Origins and Ancestral Origins of Gaspé Peninsula Residents
Hélène Vézina, Marc Tremblay, Ève-Marie Lavoie, Damian Labuda

An individual's ethnic identity stems from a sense of belonging, to a greater or lesser degree, to a group with its own distinct characteristics. Since censuses and many quantitative surveys contain questions about ethnic origin, the extent to which responses match respondents' ancestry can be examined. Using genealogical information about nearly 400 individuals residing in the Gaspésie region of eastern Quebec, this study compared participants' reported origins with the origins of their first immigrant ancestors to have settled in Quebec. The participants' genealogies were reconstructed, their immigrant ancestors identified and their geographical origins documented. The results show that the origins reported by respondents in the Gaspé Peninsula are consistent with their ancestry. Although almost all the participants have immigrant ancestors of various origins, in the majority of cases their reported group of origin is also the one most represented by those ancestors. Interestingly, when their paternal and maternal origins are different, respondents are more likely to identify with their paternal ones. Despite a diverse history of settlement and considerable intermingling of ethnic groups, inhabitants of the Gaspésie region have maintained a sense of ethnic identity that still reflects a certain demographic and genetic reality today.

Ethnic Mobility of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada Between the 2001 and 2006 Censuses
Éric Caron-Malenfant, Simon Coulombe, Eric Guimond, Chantal Grondin, André Lebel

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of an analysis of intragenerational ethnic mobility of Aboriginal peoples using a data source that allows direct estimation of the phenomenon in Canada for the first time: a linkage between the 2001 and 2006 Censuses of Population. Intragenerational ethnic mobility, or change in the self-reporting of Aboriginal identity over the course of life, contributed significantly to population growth for the Métis and for North American Indians living off Indian reserves in recent decades. However, the estimations that have been published up to now are all based on an indirect measurement and thus provide only limited insight into the associated characteristics. The descriptive and multivariate analysis the authors propose in this paper shows that Aboriginal population gains due to ethnic mobility are actually the result of multidirectional flows related to certain key characteristics, such as mixed ethnicity. The paper also explores the effects of ethnic mobility on the sociodemographic composition of Aboriginal populations, with their geographic distribution for example being modified as a result of the changes in self reporting of identity from one census to the other.

Spatial Variation in Household Structures in Nineteenth-Century Germany
Mikołaj Szołtysek, Siegfried Gruber, Sebastian Klüsener, Joshua R. Goldstein

Historical Germany represents a perfect laboratory for studying interregional demographic differences, yet the historical family structures in this part of the European continent remain largely unexplored. This study documents the variability of living arrangements using an aggregate measure of household complexity based on published statistics of the German census of 1885. Descriptive methods and spatially sensitive modelling techniques are applied to these data in order to examine existing hypotheses on the determinants of household complexity in historical Europe. We investigate how regional variation in agricultural structures and employment, inheritance practices, ethnic background, and other sociodemographic characteristics relate to regional variation in household structures. Our results show that areas with low levels of household complexity were concentrated in southwestern and southern Germany, while areas with high levels of complexity were mostly situated in the north and north-east. The supposedly decisive socioeconomic and cultural macro-regional differences that are known to have existed in late nineteenth-century Germany were at most only weakly associated with existing spatial patterns of household complexity. These results tend to support Ruggles' (2009) view that spatial variation in household structures is mostly linked to the degree of employment in agriculture and demographic characteristics.

Assessing the Household's Financial Situation, Alone with the Interviewer or in the Partner's Presence
Patrick Festy, Joëlle Gaymu, Marc Thévenin

While interviewers are generally instructed to administer survey questionnaires on a one-to-one basis, a large share of interviews are actually conducted in the partner's presence, notably when respondents are advanced in age. In the French version of the Generations and Gender Survey (ERFI, Études des relations familiales et intergénérationnelles), for example, the proportion was 40% among respondents aged 50 and over. Couples where the partner attends the interview do not have the same characteristics as those where the respondent is interviewed alone, and the differences between the two groups are more marked when the respondent is a woman. For the question on the household's financial situation, while there is no difference between men's and women's responses over the sample as a whole, men more often report having financial difficulties than women when interviewed alone, while the reverse is true when the partner is present, in which case they more frequently report financial wellbeing than women. The factors associated with financial hardship are identical for both sexes however, whatever the interview conditions. While it is difficult to determine whether, as a general rule, the partner's presence raises or lowers the quality of the respondents' answers, the way they are interpreted depends partly on the interview conditions.

Involuntary Bachelorhood in Rural China: A Social Network Perspective
Lige Liu, Xiaoyi Jin, Melissa J. Brown, Marcus W. Feldman

If a man has a matchmaking network, will this increase his chance of marrying? Using survey data from X County in Anhui Province collected in 2008, we analyse the determinants of first marriage probability for 18 to 50-yearold rural Chinese men (N = 412) in terms of their social networks. We find that age at first marriage for rural Chinese men is concentrated in the interval between 22 and 27 years, and the probability of first marriage decreases sharply from age 28, and drops to almost zero above age 34. We also find that tie configuration, but not the size of the matchmaking network, has an important effect on the probability of men's first marriage. The men who have no matchmaking network face a high risk of remaining single. Among men with a matchmaking network, different network configurations have slightly different effects: kin ties play a more important role in increasing men's probability of marrying, especially at men's most common marriage ages. The probability of first marriage for men with both kin and non-kin ties is the lowest, which may reflect the matchmaking strategy for some men who have more difficulties in getting married.