Fertility by Birth Order among the Descendants of Immigrants in Selected European Countries

Abstract

European populations are characterized by an increasing share of immigrants and their descendants (Castles and Miller 2009; Rees et al. 2012). In the second half of the twentieth century, most immigrants arrived in Northern and Western European countries, whereas in the first decade of this century Southern European countries experienced a rapid increase of the immigrant population (Arango 2000; Cornelius 1994; Raymer, de Beer, and van der Erf 2011). Central and Eastern European countries with state socialist regimes and planned economies showed specific migration patterns during the post¿World War II period; some countries contributed to intra-European labor migration, others experienced emigration of political refugees. The East¿West migration streams significantly increased after the fall of Communism, and some Eastern European countries have experienced large emigration streams also in the first decades of the twenty-first century (Fassmann and Münz 1994; Frejka 1996; Raymer, de Beer, and van der Erf 2011; Rees et al. 2012). Over time, the share of the descendants of postwar immigrants has also increased (we also refer to them as ethnic minorities or the second generation). In many Northern and Western European countries, immigrants and their descendants form approximately one-fifth to one-fourth of the population (OECD 2014; Zimmermann 2005). Immigrants and their descendants thus increasingly shape demographic, social, and cultural trends in European societies.

There is extensive research on different aspects of immigrants¿ lives, including their legal status and citizenship (Bauböck 2003; Seifert 1997), employment and education (Adsera and Chiswick 2007; Rendall et al. 2010), and residential and housing patterns (Arbaci 2008; Musterd 2005). There is also a growing interest in family and fertility dynamics among ethnic minorities. While the fertility of immigrants in European countries has received considerable attention in the recent demographic literature (Andersson 2004; Kulu and Milewski 2007; Milewski 2010b; Mussino and Strozza 2012; Sobotka 2008; Tromans, Natamba, and Jefferie 2009), the childbearing patterns among the descendants of immigrants have been little studied and understood. The few existing studies show that the descendants of immigrants from high-fertility countries usually have lower fertility levels than their parents¿ generation, but fertility levels for some groups remain high relative to the fertility of the host population (Coleman and Dubuc 2010; Dubuc 2012; Milewski 2010b; Sobotka 2008).

The present study investigates the childbearing patterns among the descendants of immigrants in six European countries: the UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, and Spain. This group includes ¿old¿ and ¿new¿ immigrant countries as well as countries with different migration and family policies and fertility dynamics and patterns. The cross-country analysis of fertility behavior among ethnic minorities allows us to detect similarities and differences across European countries. Our main focus is on the fertility of the descendants of immigrants from high-fertility countries. We examine whether the fertility patterns of the second generation are similar to those of their parents¿ generation, which are often shaped by fertility patterns in the sending country, or those of the native population (defined here as native-born persons with native-born parents). Our study is the first to analyze ethnic minority fertility by parity, with and without controls for demographic and socioeconomic factors.