Migrants, Second Generations and their Family and Fertility Choices: A Pan-European Analysis

Agnese Vitali, Università Bocconi
Francesco C. Billari, Università Bocconi
Frank F Furstenberg, Jr., University of Pennsylvania

We use a pan-European comparative survey, the European Social Survey, to study fertility choices of migrants of first and second generations, as well as of stayers in countries of origin and natives of destination countries. We focus on five sending countries: Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain, nowadays characterized by low and lowest low fertility levels, and Turkey, where fertility is still above replacement. We then 1) explore the opportunities given by micro-level datasets, available on a relatively large number of countries for research; 2) describe, also by developing “cœteris paribus” regression models, the key behavioral and attitudinal differences between first and second generation migrants, stayers in country of origin, and citizens of destination countries; 3) exploit the heterogeneity of destination countries to test the effect of welfare provision on fertility choices. Analyses are based on descriptive statistics and generalized linear (mixed) models on completed fertility and fertility intentions.