This study explores the role of individual and local marriage market characteristics in whether recently wed U.S. residents “imported” a spouse instead of marrying someone already present in the country. Our findings indicate that U.S. natives and immigrants whose spouse is a “marriage migrant” (someone who arrived in the U.S. the same year as the marriage occurred) are positively selected along some dimensions but negatively along others. The results also suggest that U.S. immigration policy plays an important role in whether immigrants bring in a spouse. We further investigate the trade-offs in spouse characteristics associated with having a marriage-migrant spouse. Marriage-migrant spouses are more likely than other spouses to have characteristics that their spouse may find desirable, such as being relatively younger and less likely to have been previously married. Among naturalized citizens, differences in spousal characteristics between marriage migrants and other spouses are notably large, showcasing the desirability of someone who can easily sponsor a spouse for permanent residence.

这项研究探讨了个人和当地婚姻市场特征对于最近结婚的美国居民是否“进口”配偶而不是与已经在该国的人结婚的影响。我们的研究结果表明，美国本地人和配偶为“婚姻移民”（结婚同年抵达美国的人）的移民在某些方面受到积极选择，但在其他方面受到消极选择。研究结果还表明，美国的移民政策在移民是否带配偶方面发挥着重要作用。我们进一步调查了与结婚移民配偶相关的配偶特征的权衡。与其他配偶相比，结婚移民配偶更有可能拥有其配偶可能认为合适的特征，例如相对年轻且以前结婚的可能性较小。在入籍公民中，婚姻移民与其他配偶之间的配偶特征差异显着较大，这表明可以轻松担保配偶获得永久居留权的人的需求。