Although the declining level of fertility is a global trend, it may vary considerably across countries. In a low-fertility country, women have less than two children on average during their life course, but it may even drop to levels close to 1.5 or lower. What happens if women move from a high-fertility country to a low-fertility one? Research has shown that over time, the childbearing patterns of migrants gradually come to resemble that of the host population, which means that the number of children among migrants from high-fertility countries tend to decline. Complete convergence, however, can still take considerable time and extends beyond the first generation. We know that social networks and exposure to host countries’ structural conditions may facilitate the adaptation of childbearing behaviour, but we have relatively little evidence on the ways specific spatial factors may slow down or accelerate this shift towards fertility convergence.
In this study, Allan Puur (Tallinn University), Leen Rahnu (Tallinn University and University of Turku) and Tiit Tammaru (University of Tartu) focus on African and Middle Eastern origin immigrant women and their descendants in Finland. The goal is to explore whether the proportion of co-ethnic immigrants in two major domains of life – residential neighbourhoods and workplaces – is related to the fertility adaptation among that group. Authors use the individual-level register data from 1999 to 2014 to investigate first, second and third birth intensities among immigrants and their descendants. The study contributes to the literature in three ways: (1) by tackling the associations between workplace ethnic composition and fertility that is virtually unexplored so far; (2) by exploring the effects associated with residential neighbourhoods in different immigrant generations; and (3) by exploring fertility of immigrants and their descendants in Finland, which is relatively little studied country context.
The results show that women from high-fertility groups are more likely to have two or three children if they live in immigrant dense neighbourhoods compared to co-ethnic immigrants who live in less immigrant dense areas. However, even a relatively small concentration of co-ethnic immigrants in the neighbourhood leads to significant differences in childbearing intensities. The authors also find similar patterns among second-generation immigrants and immigrants who were children at the time of their move. In contrast, there is no positive association between workplace contexts and fertility behaviour, which may stem from the fact that only a relatively small proportion of women of African and Middle Eastern origin in Finland is economically active. Employed women in the study population could already be selected for characteristics, which make them less oriented to family growth.
These findings demonstrate that alongside other factors such as age at migration, education and cultural proximity to the host country, the ethnic composition of neighbourhoods may have tangible implications for the tempo of fertility adaptation among immigrants who originate from high-fertility settings. Furthermore, the findings resonate with previous evidence that the convergence of fertility behaviour can take at least two generations. From the policy perspective, the study underscores the need for measures that would help to moderate the residential and workplace segregation of immigrants.