Immigrant Single Mothers in Germany: An Intersectional Perspective on a Group at Risk

The risk of poverty is not evenly distributed in the German population, and immigrants and single mothers are particularly at risk. According to the Family Stress Model, poverty can impact all family members and their relationships. We use the AID:A 2019 dataset on young families and apply an intersectional perspective to study the situation of immigrant single mothers and their children. We focus on how single mothers and in particular immigrant single mothers differ from mothers in two-parent families and non-immigrants in terms of poverty risk, reported life satisfaction, and mother-reported psychosocial difficulties (SDQ) of their children. Our results show that immigrant single mothers, especially first-generation non-naturalized immigrant mothers, face the highest risk of economic stress and lower life satisfaction. This supports the Family Stress Model. However, contrary to the extended Family Stress Model, children of immigrant single mothers are not more likely to show mother-reported psychosocial difficulties than their peers from two-parent or non-immigrant families. Following an intersectional perspective, we do not assume that the reasons for these differences necessarily lie only in the individuals. Instead, we also interpret the effects of social positions as effects of the political and social dynamics creating these social positions and thus discuss the German institutional settings that might explain our results.