Increasing mixed marriages without assimilation: a consequence of historical ethnic emigration in Romania

This paper analyzes some of the consequences ethnic emigration might have on the social boundaries between ethnic majorities and minorities. It focuses on a specific East-European context (Romania) and its historical national minority groups: Jewish, Germans, Hungarians and Roma. Two of these groups–Jewish and Germans–have had high levels of emigration over the past four decades. By comparing them with the other two groups, I suggest that this flight has been followed by an increasing percentage of mixed marriages, indicating a decreasing social boundary between the majority and minority groups. However, more children from mixed marriages identify with the minority group, showing that, despite higher intermarriage rates, assimilation is not to be expected. The influence of other factors (education, differential fertility, benefits offered by the motherland) is also discussed in order to understand these antithetical trends.