Nativity gaps in income poverty in Germany: Examining the role of gendered work intensity and wage patterns in couple households

In Germany, immigrants of different origins have higher income poverty rates than natives to varying but substantial degrees. In this study, I examine nativity gaps in income poverty among heterosexual couple households (with and without children) in Western Germany and pair-wise compare households of native couples with households in which at least one partner is an immigrant, distinguishing between immigrants from Turkey, Poland, and the former Soviet Union. Building on a theoretical model of household poverty, I analyze how the nativity and gender-specific labor market disadvantages of partners accumulate at the household level, where they constrain labor income sufficiency given household needs and available transfers. I decompose poverty gaps using matching and entropy balancing techniques with respect to nativity differences in partners' work intensities and wages; I also consider differences in household size, children's labor income, and non-labor income. While all of these channels are relevant, inequality in male partners' wages is the most important factor overall, accounting for 23-37 % of the observed nativity poverty gaps by immigrant origin. For Turkish immigrant households, however, nativity disadvantages in the work intensity of male (23 %) and especially female (41 %) partners are most consequential, which play a comparatively minor role for the other origins. Notably, substantial poverty gaps would remain for each comparison even if both partners in immigrant households had the same work intensities as their native counterparts.