Fertility among Recent Immigrant Women to Canada, 1991: An Examination of the Disruption Hypothesis

Abstract

Recent studies show that current fertility is higher for women who immigrated to Canada than for Canadian-born women. This represents a reversal of the historical pattern that can perhaps be partly explained by the more pronounced decline of fertility among the Canadian-born compared with the foreign-born population and the higher proportion of Non-Europeans among recent immigrants.Recent studies also provide support for the disruption hypothesis which suggests that during the period immediately following immigration, foreign-born fertility is depressed but subsequently rises somewhat and then declines as duration of stay in Canada increases.However, this article shows that fertility immediately following immigration does not appear to be disrupted by the immigration process: immigrant women who came to Canada between 1986 and 1991 had a higher current fertility than those who immigrated in earlier periods. This finding was obtained by calculating the ratio of infants age 0 to women of childbearing ages using 1991 census data. Previous studies that had found a disruption effect used a ratio of children aged 0 to 4.

The fertility of immigrants after arrival: The Italian case

“…A number of hypotheses on the effect of migration on childbearing are illustrated in the literature. As an alternative to the disruption 4 hypothesis, which would expect a delay in childbearing right after migration due to the stress of the move (Milewski 2010), we assumed a peak in the risk of childbearing in the short term after arrival (Ng and Nault 1997). Ford (1990) demonstrated the importance of considering the duration of stay and the possibility that the short-term effect had a strong impact on fertility behavior.…”

Immigrant fertility in West Germany: Is there a socialization effect in transitions to second and third births?

“…Evidence for the disruption hypothesis has been found for immigrants moving to Australia (Carlson 1985;Abbasi-Shavazi and McDonald 2000;Abbasi-Shavazi and McDonald 2002), Mexicans moving to the U.S. (Bean and Swicegood 1985;Stephen and Bean 1992), and immigrants to Canada (Ram and George 1990;Ng and Nault 1997). Studies on immigrants in Western Europe, however, do not find evidence for a fertilitydisruption effect of international migration (Andersson 2004 for Sweden;Milewski 2007 for Germany).…”

First child of immigrant workers and their descendants in West Germany

“…Especially international migrants are confronted with a drastic change in their daily-life conditions. Evidence for the disruption hypothesis has been found for immigrants moving to Australia (Carlson 1985a), Mexicans moving to the United States of America (Stephen and Bean 1992), immigrants to Canada -although the disruptive effect has been found to be of very short nature (Ng and Nault 1997) -as well as for internal migrants (Goldstein 1973). Frequently, elevated birth rates shortly after migration are interpreted as constituting catching-up behavior for postponed or interrupted childbearing in the phase shortly preceding and during the migration (Goldstein and Goldstein 1981, Ford 1990, Toulemon and Mazuy 2004.…”