The Realization of Short-Term Fertility Intentions Among Immigrants and Children of Immigrants in Norway and Sweden

Abstract

Immigrant fertility and the realization of fertility intentions are two topics of considerable interest in contemporary demographic research. Yet very few studies have explored the relationship between intended and actual fertility among immigrants and their children. Using data from the Norwegian and Swedish Generations and Gender Surveys, this article analyzes how both positive and negative short-term fertility intentions stated by men and women at Wave 1 in 2007/08 (Norway) or 2012/13 (Sweden) had been realized at register-based follow-ups three years after the initial interview. Results show that second-generation women of non-Western origin were significantly less likely than native women (defined here as Swedish-born women with two Swedish-born parents) to realize a positive fertility intention, whereas first-generation men of Western origin were significantly more likely than native men to realize a positive fertility intention. Western-origin men were also significantly less likely than native men to have an unintended birth. These findings are robust to controlling for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics at interview. Possible reasons for these intergroup realization differences include group differences in the ability to predict future changes to demographic and socioeconomic status and in the motivation to pursue the realization of a reported fertility intention. This article demonstrates that exploring immigrant-native differences in realization patterns can provide information about immigrants’ ideational and behavioral adaptation to the destination country’s fertility regime that cannot be attained by studying intended or actual fertility alone.

The impact of the new trend of urban‐to‐urban migration on fertility behaviors

“…They have a lower probability of having children and choose to have fewer children, delay the age of first birth and widen the interval between their first birth and second birth. The above findings are consistent with Lindstrom et al (2020) and Carlsson (2022). They respectively investigated the fertility conditions of international migrants in the United States and Nordic countries, and our research further supplements the evidence from domestic migrants in developing countries.…”

Challenges in the Pathway to Parenthood and Their Part in Explaining Depressed Fertility Among Migrant Descendants

“…Presuming that migrant descendants favor endogamous unions over mixing with the locals (Carol, 2016;Huschek et al, 2012;Kalmijn, 1998), the limited availability of suitable partners can result in prolonged searches for a partner who can secure familial and communal approval, leading to delays in union formation and age at first birth. These viewpoints resonate with recent findings that highlight delayed union formation (Wiik, 2022) and unrealized fertility ideals (Carlsson, 2022) among second-generation women in the Nordic context.…”