Labour-market status and first-time parenthood: The experience of immigrant women in Sweden, 1981–97

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of labour-market attachment on first births of foreign-born women in Sweden. The study uses a longitudinal, register-based dataset consisting of the entire population of immigrants from ten nations and a 5-per-cent random sample of natives. The effects of earned income are evident, with increased income levels increasing the probability of becoming a mother for all observed nationalities. The effects of various forms of participation and non-participation in the labour force do not vary greatly between immigrants and the Swedish-born. Among all subgroups, we find a higher propensity to begin childbearing among those who are established in the labour market. Contrary to popular belief, receiving welfare benefits clearly reduces first-birth intensity for immigrants but not for natives. The similarity in patterns across widely different national groups supports the notion that various institutional factors affecting all subgroups are crucial in influencing childbearing behaviour.

Sweden: Combining childbearing and gender equality

“…Being enrolled in education greatly suppressed fertility across all groups. Contrary to public belief, immigrant women who received social assistance (i.e., welfare benefits) had a 30-60% lower risk to have a first child than Swedish-born women, except for those born in Finland, Germany, and Thailand, all of whom are most likely to live with a Swedish man (Andersson and Scott 2005).…”

“…The fertility of immigrants has not been studied much in Sweden, but the few important exceptions (Andersson 2004b;Andersson and Scott 2005) show that period fertility trends of Swedish-born and immigrant women have been quite similar for several decades, and during the 1990s, birth-intensities for parities 1-4 decreased for these groups alike. Labor-market status was found to be important for the timing of first birth of both native and foreign-born women in the 1980s and 1990s, as low income reduced the propensity to become a mother while high income increased it, as did a good local business climate.…”

Welfare state context, female labour-market attachment and childbearing in Germany and Denmark

“…Studies for Nordic countries report strongly negative correlations between female non-employment and first-birth behaviour but only weak associations of female unemployment with first-birth fertility (Andersson 2000;Andersson and Scott 2005;Jalovaara and Miettinen 2013;Kravdal 2002;Lundström and Andersson 2012;Vikat 2004). On the whole, micro-level research largely supports the hypothesis that the institutional context may shape the association between female employment and first-birth behaviour.…”

Introduction to research on immigrant and ethnic minority families in Europe

“…Therefore, people who move from one social environment to another show childbearing patterns similar to non-migrants at their origin (Andersson 2004;Kulu and Milewski 2007). By contrast, the adaptation argument assumes that an individual's current social context is what matters most: therefore migrants exhibit fertility levels similar to those of the population at destination (Andersson and Scott 2005;Hervitz 1985). Similar arguments are used when studying the fertility behaviour of immigrants' descendants.…”