Comparing the fertility of Ghanaian migrants in Europe with nonmigrants in Ghana

Abstract

The fertility behaviour of migrants is often studied by examining migrants and native nonmigrants in the country of destination. To understand the mechanisms for migrant fertility, it is important to know what distinguishes them from the population they originate from. The Ghanaian sample of the "Migrations between Africa and Europe" project allows us to contrast the fertility of those who never emigrated from Ghana and Ghanaian migrants who are residing in the UK or the Netherlands. First, we estimate discrete-time hazard models of first birth to evaluate whether first birth timing is influenced by migration. Second, we apply Poisson regression techniques to examine differentials in completed fertility. We find that Ghanaian migrants postpone first childbirth compared with nonmigrants. Differences are largest at ages 20 to 24 for women and 20 to 29 for men.Ghana experiences a typical brain drain, which means that especially the highly skilled emigrate. In our sample, this is particularly true for women. Education seems to be an important determinant of the postponement of first childbirth in Ghana, although we cannot clearly attribute migrants' later first births to their higher level of education. However, our findings on completed fertility reveal that migrants have fewer children than nonmigrants and this difference diminishes considerably if we take into account their level of education. Apparently, migrants do not fully catch up after postponing first childbirth and end up with a lower number of children by the age of 40.

Socio-economic and demographic factors associated with fertility preferences among women of reproductive age in Ghana: evidence from the 2014 Demographic and Health Survey

“…These findings are in line with previous studies that higher socio-economic status is associated with lower fertility desires. Specifically, similar findings have been observed in Nigeria [ 25 ], India [ 26 ] and various multi-country studies [ 27 – 30 ]. However, our results deviate from what was found in a Ugandan study by Matovu et al [ 31 ].…”

Human fertility in relation to education, economy, religion, contraception, and family planning programs

“…1), TFR decreased with increasing education for females, supporting earlier studies (e.g. [18,19,21,62]). The number of school years for women increased markedly after 1970 in most regions, but increased less in Africa [63].…”

Fertility Intentions and Views on Gender Roles: Russian Women in Estonia from an Origin-destination Perspective

“…Selection can be based on observable characteristics such as education, family background, etc., but migrants may also be selected according to less obvious features. Empirical research provides evidence for both types of selection (Lievens 1999;Lindstrom/Saucedo 2002;Bagavos et al 2008;Mussino/Strozza 2012;Wolf/Mulder 2018). According to the characteristics perspective, the composition of migrant groups in terms of socioeconomic or cultural characteristics could be partly or wholly responsible for fertility differentials between the former and the latter (Bean et al 2000;Hill/Johnson 2004).…”

“…Furthermore, we include in the analysis non-migrants (or "stayers") in the country of origin. Although various researchers have recommended this approach (Schoenmaeckers et al 1999;Glick 2010;Lessard-Phillips et al 2017), it has been implemented only in a few European studies due to data constraints (Nauck 2007;White 2011;Baizán et al 2014;Krapf/Wolf 2015;Baykara-Krumme/Milewski 2017;Klimek 2017;Wolf/Mulder 2018).…”