YOUNG BRIDES The marginalization of stateless people has encouraged underage marriage - a trend that is fortunately becoming less prevalent among the younger generations . Fig 43. Identified patterns among the stateless who were married underage (111 respondents) Fig 42. A closer look at underage marriages 73% 27% Female 58% hMale Share of underage marriages among stateless over the decades 36% 24% 87% 45% 37% 25% 24% Underage marriage (111 stateless respondents)1930s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 20% 2000s 14% earn less than the minimum wage 82% 92% are unemployed: 79% women 21% men received little to no education: 72% women 28% men 2010s • Field research uncovered 111 stateless respondents who were married before the age of 18, which represent 24% of our sample. The diagram above shows the breakdown of underage marriages among all married respondents. • As previously mentioned, 82% out of those who consider marriage to be a solution for their female relatives’ statelessness reject underage marriage, confirming the decline of such matrimonial preference in the recent decades. • Underage marriage is depriving both genders of their rights, with young grooms being less common than young brides. Parents consider marriage as a safety net for their children and a way to ease their household’s financial burdens. • The diagram above shows a pattern of deprivation and lack of education among the 111 stateless respondents who married underage. This, along with the number of cases, proves a correlation between poverty and ignorance on one hand, and underage marriage on the other. © 2021 Siren Associates. All Rights Reserved.