MPIDR Working Paper

Fertility of migrants: a comparative study between Italy and Russia

Abstract

This paper contributes to the analysis of fertility differentials between migrants and the native-born by examining the transition to first child using event history analysis. The data examined are the first-wave Italian Families and Social Subjects Survey conducted in 2003 and the first-wave Russian Gender and Generations Survey conducted in 2004. The objective of the study is twofold: First we seek to determine whether differences exist in the decision and timing of childbearing between native and foreign-born women in Italy and in Russia. Second we aim to compare the experiences of immigrants in the two countries, to determine whether there may be any commonalities inherent to the immigrant populations, despite moving into widely different contexts. Our results show many similarities in the risk profiles of our two immigrant groups which is more suggestive of immigrants being a distinct group rather than assimilating or conforming to the native fertility patterns. Second, our results do not seem to confirm the presence of either disruption or family formation being key events associated with migration.