Fertility Intentions across Immigrant Generations in Sweden. Do Patterns of Adaptation Differ by Gender and Origin?

Abstract

In being representative of individuals’ demographic value orientations, fertility preferences provide information about immigrants’ adaptation to family formation patterns in the destination country at a deeper, ideational level than actual fertility does. Using data from Wave 1 of the Swedish GGS from 2012/2013 (n=3,932), this study compares the first, 1.5, and second generations with either one or two foreign-born parent(s) to Swedes without an immigrant background by gender and across origins. Binary logistic regression is used to compare the propensity to state a positive fertility intention, and partial proportional odds models are used to analyse differences across four ordinal intention categories (definitely/probably yes/no). Results show a general tendency towards convergence from the relatively positive intentions of the first generation to levels closer to non-immigrants in later generations, although complete convergence is only found for the second generation with one foreign-born parent. There are gender differences, with women being similar to non-immigrants by the 1.5 generation, while there is no clear intergenerational trend for men. Among origin groups, convergence is evident among Eastern Europeans and “other non-Europeans”, while Westerners already are similar to non-immigrants in the first generation, and Middle Easterners/North Africans display no clear intergenerational trend. This study contributes to the understanding of immigrant fertility by showing that there often is intergenerational adaptation at the ideational (i.e. preference) level, that the pace and extent of convergence vary by gender and across origins, and that group-level patterns found for fertility intentions do not always match those found in earlier research on fertility behaviour.
 
 * This article belongs to a special issue on migrant fertility.

Neighbourhoods and Workplaces: Are They Related to the Fertility of Immigrants and Their Descendants? A Register-Based Study of Finland, 1999–2014

“…Furthermore, our results suggest that the neighbourhood composition's association with fertility adaptation persists among child migrants, and possibly among the second generation. This finding resonates with studies which have provided evidence that among immigrants from high-fertility settings, the convergence of fertility behaviour can take at least two generations (Milewski 2010;Scott and Stanfors 2011;Kulu et al 2017;Pailhé 2017;Carlsson 2019). Finally, these implications also seem to be associated with the contexts in which the proportion of co-ethnic immigrants is relatively moderate, at least when considered at the country level.…”

“…Recent studies that explore the adaptation perspective have involved the 1.5 generation, i.e. individuals who migrated as children (Bleakley and Chin 2010;Adserà et al 2012), and second-generation immigrants (Parrado and Morgan 2008;Kulu and Hannemann 2016;Kulu et al 2017;Pailhé 2017;Guarin Rojas et al 2018;Carlsson 2019).…”

Fertility Intentions Within a 3-Year Time Frame: a Comparison Between Migrant and Native Italian Women

“…In the European context, evidence from Sweden shows convergence to destination country short-term intention patterns, with the second generation being similar to non-migrants. The first generation instead shows more positive short-term fertility intentions compared to natives, while the 1.5 generation occupies an intermediate position (Carlsson 2018). Puur et al (2018) recently studied the fertility intentions of Russian migrants and their descendants in Estonia, comparing non-migrants in Estonia and Russia.…”

“…Research has shown the persistence of patterns similar to those in the country of origin (i.e. non-migrant peers) among first-generation migrants, while demonstrating a gradual convergence towards patterns typical of natives among those in the 1.5 and second generations (Carlsson 2018;Puur et al 2018).…”

Health status and fertility intentions among migrants

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