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Abstract:
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Immigrant women are frequently found to have higher fertility relative to women in the majority population . This is often attributed to their socioeconomic characteristics , cultural preferences and patterns of childbearing , and adaptation to the destination context . However , several limitations in the research to date may mask the associations and processes which shape women’s fertility : 1 ) frequently used indicators are not sensitive to the way in which fertility is shaped by the migration process 2 ) key proximate determinants of fertility are often not integrated into analyses and 3 ) non‐migrant women in sending countries are often excluded as a reference for immigrant women’s childbearing behavior . In order to assess how women’s migratory moves and social context affect fertility , I compare the risk of first birth and patterns of contraceptive use at higher‐order parities for non‐migrant , immigrant and native‐born women . For these analyses , I use data from nationally‐representative surveys of reproductive health and family formation from Mexico , the United States , Turkey and Germany . The results from these analyses demonstrate that both foreign‐born Mexican‐ and Turkish‐origin immigrant
women experience first birth earlier than non -migrants , second generation immigrants , and native -born women at destination . However the underlying determinants of earlier birth are different for these two groups . There are also differences for second generation women ; US -born Mexicans experience first birth at significantly younger ages than whites , whereas age at first birth is very similar for German -born Turkish women and ethnic Germans . Furthermore , patterns of contraceptive use among immigrant women who have at least one child are notably different than patterns observed for non -migrants . US -born women have similar contraceptive use compared to whites , but Mexican -born women are less likely to use permanent and highly effective methods , even after controlling for fertility intentions . Turkish -origin women in Germany exhibit large differences in contraceptive use relative to non -migrant women , particularly the very low reported use of withdrawal . These findings indicate that fertility determinants vary across origin and destination context . The observed differences between Mexican - and Turkish -origin women suggest that distinct processes of migration , socialization , and access to contraception lead to variation in the fertility outcomes for these two groups . |