Understanding How Immigrant Fertility Differentials Vary over the Reproductive Life Course

Abstract

Studies of immigrant fertility differentials indicate that foreign-born women have more children than native-born women, at least for some origin groups. Yet little is known about variation in cumulative fertility differentials over the life course, including the extent to which this variation develops into completed fertility differentials. This research responds with an analysis of cumulative fertility differentials in the UK for a cohort of women born between 1942 and 1971. Findings are consistent with age-specific patterns that have been documented for immigrant groups in the UK, but underline the importance of taking a cohort perspective, which helps to distinguish between the tempo and quantum of fertility. Immigrants have significantly higher completed fertility than UK-born natives if they were born in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Jamaica, or Western and Central Africa, but the profile of their cumulative fertility differentials—versus the UK-born—varies considerably over the life course, especially by age at migration. For example, women from Bangladesh and Pakistan have similar levels of cumulative fertility at age 40, but very different age patterns of cumulative fertility from ages 20–40. There is a consistent pattern of relatively delayed Pakistani fertility at early ages, especially for those arriving at later ages, but the same is not true for women from Bangladesh. Overall, these results imply that researchers should beware of variation in cohort fertility over the life course—with respect to both the quantum and tempo of fertility—when analysing immigrant childbearing, in addition to variation by origin and age at arrival.

Visualising Immigrant Fertility -- Profiles of Childbearing and their Implications for Migration Research

“…their profile of fertility over agewhile also showing their children ever born at arrival. A similar approach has been used elsewhere to show how the childbearing of female immigrants varies over their reproductive lives as compared with the childbearing of native-born women (Wilson 2019). A key advantage of studying immigrant fertility profiles in this way is that they provide insights about both tempo (i.e.…”

Fertility of Roma Minorities in Central and Eastern Europe

“…The "strong form" of the characteristics hypothesis predicts no black-white differences at any educational attainment level. Here, we should note that empirical studies yielded rather contradictory results regarding the social characteristics hypothesis (Anderson et al 2018;Shain 2019;Wilson 2019Wilson , 2020Šprocha/Tišliar 2019).…”

Simulating family life courses: An application for Italy, Great Britain, Norway, and Sweden

“…Childbearing and partnership behaviour not only differ between native-born and immigrant women but also among immigrant groups (e.g., Andersson 2004;Hannemann and Kulu 2015;Mussino andStrozza 2012, Sobotka 2008;Tromans, Jefferies, and Natamba 2009). However, there is only limited research on cumulated differentials over the life course (Wilson 2020). An extension of our simulation framework to immigrants' family experiences is beyond the scope of this paper but might provide useful insight into how differentials in childbearing and partnership behaviour by ethnicity interact and accumulate over the life course.…”