MPIDR Working Paper

First child of immigrant workers and their descendants in West Germany: interrelation of events, disruption, or adaptation?

Milewski, N.
MPIDR Working Paper WP-2006-034, 35 pages.
Rostock, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (October 2006)
Open Access

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of immigration on the transition to motherhood among women from Turkey, Italy, Spain, Greece, and the former Yugoslavia in West Germany. We apply a hazard regression analysis to data of the German Socio-Economic Panel study. We distinguish between the first and second immigrant generation. The results show that the transition rates to a first birth of first-generation immigrants are elevated shortly after they move country. We trace the elevated birth risks shortly following the immigration back to an interrelation of events – these are migration, marriage, and first birth. We do not find evidence of a fertility-disruption effect after immigration. Our analysis indicates that second-generation immigrants are more adapted to the lower fertility levels of West Germans than their mothers’ generation.
Keywords: Germany (Alte Bundesländer)
The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Rostock is one of the leading demographic research centers in the world. It's part of the Max Planck Society, the internationally renowned German research society.