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culture, and agency
—
where creative culture-building takes place in
the context of external social and economic forces as well as
immigrants’ pre-migration cultural frameworks” (961). Moreover,
the convenience of international transportation and communication
technology facilitate social diffusion of values and ideas so that
traditional attitudes toward union formation from the homeland
are maintained. They are as important as those learned in the new
society in understanding immigrants’ behaviors and adaptations in
America. Thus, regional variations in socioeconomic development
and phases of demographic transition in Asia offer valuable points
of reference for conceptualizing how members of different Asian
ethnic groups decide when and how to engage in family-building in
their new homes.
Although East Asian countries share a Confucian heritage that
emphasizes the centrality of family, dramatic demographic changes
have been witnessed in the past few decades in all advanced
economies: declining first marriage rates, rising prevalence of
cohabitation, and plummeting fertility levels (Jones, Straughan, &
Chan, 2009; Lesthaeghe, 2010). Men and women are postponing
marriages and many entirely forego matrimony. The extent to
which the dramatic decline in marriage rates in East Asia is offset by
more cohabitation is generally quite difficult to estimate, though
scholars have found a rising trend toward greater acceptance and
practice of co-residential unions in Japan and Taiwan (Lesthaeghe,
2010; Raymo, Iwasawa, & Bumpass, 2009). The percentages of
Japanese men and women reported as having ever cohabited
indicate an increase from about 10% among the 1960-64 cohorts,
to about 21% for the 1975-79 cohorts (Raymo et al., 2009). The
percentage of Taiwanese women aged 20 to 49 who reported
having ever cohabited also shows a leap from about 11% to 20%
between the 1998 and 2004 Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices
(KAP) surveys (Lesthaeghe, 2010). Estimates for the prevalence of
cohabitation in other East Asian countries, such as Singapore and
South Korea, are not available.