The Same Fertility Ideals as in the Country of Origin? A Study of the Personal Ideal Family Size among Immigrant Women in Italy
Autor/in:
Mussino, Eleonora; Ortensi, Livia Elisa
Quelle: Comparative Population Studies - Zeitschrift für Bevölkerungswissenschaft, 43 (2018) , S 243-274
Inhalt: The role of the personal ideal family size for international migrants has rarely been studied in the current debate on fertility and migration in the European context. It is not known to which extent the reduction of fertility observed among immigrants who settle in a country where fertility is lower than in their country of origin is the result of a change in fertility norms among those immigrants. The study of migrants' ideals family size has the potential to shed light on fertility norms without the interference of economic conditions and migration-related disruptive phenomena. Due to the complexity of its migration context, Italy is an interesting destination country for studying changes in migrants' ideal family sizes. This paper uses data from the survey of the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) on immigrant families conducted in 2011-12. We compare the personal ideal family size of women of reproductive age with the prevalent norm in their country of origin, applying a multinomial logistic regression analysis. Results show that the country of origin has an important role in the determination of immigrants’ ideal family sizes. Women from countries where large families are the ideal are more likely to show a lower personal ideal family size compared to their non-migrant co-nationals, while women from countries where two children are considered ideal mostly share the same norm. The occurrence of fertility preferences expressed in a non-numeric form (e.g. "Up to God") changes between women with different countries of origin. This study confirms that conformity with the ideal of the country of origin is more likely among women who migrated as adults. At the same time, the number of years spent in the destination country is not significantly associated with a shift away from the norms prevalent in the country of origin. Finally, female empowerment and gender equity show their effects mainly on the reduction of non-numeric responses.
Schlagwörter:Migrant; migrant; woman; Italien; Italy; Fruchtbarkeit; fertility; Kinderzahl; number of children; generatives Verhalten; reproductive behavior; Familiengröße; family size; Norm; standard; Tradition; tradition; Herkunftsland; country of origin; Geschlechtsrolle; gender role; Gleichberechtigung; equality of rights; sozioökonomische Faktoren; socioeconomic factors; Ideal number of children; Fertility; Migrants; Italy; Gender Norms
SSOAR Kategorie:Bevölkerung, Familiensoziologie, Sexualsoziologie, Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung
The Same Fertility Ideals as in the Country of Origin? A Study of the Personal Ideal Family Size among Immigrant Women in Italy
Autor/in:
Mussino, Eleonora; Ortensi, Livia Elisa
Quelle: Comparative Population Studies - Zeitschrift für Bevölkerungswissenschaft, 43 (2018) , S 243-274
Inhalt: The role of the personal ideal family size for international migrants has rarely been studied in the current debate on fertility and migration in the European context. It is not known to which extent the reduction of fertility observed among immigrants who settle in a country where fertility is lower than in their country of origin is the result of a change in fertility norms among those immigrants. The study of migrants' ideals family size has the potential to shed light on fertility norms without the interference of economic conditions and migration-related disruptive phenomena. Due to the complexity of its migration context, Italy is an interesting destination country for studying changes in migrants' ideal family sizes. This paper uses data from the survey of the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) on immigrant families conducted in 2011-12. We compare the personal ideal family size of women of reproductive age with the prevalent norm in their country of origin, applying a multinomial logistic regression analysis. Results show that the country of origin has an important role in the determination of immigrants’ ideal family sizes. Women from countries where large families are the ideal are more likely to show a lower personal ideal family size compared to their non-migrant co-nationals, while women from countries where two children are considered ideal mostly share the same norm. The occurrence of fertility preferences expressed in a non-numeric form (e.g. "Up to God") changes between women with different countries of origin. This study confirms that conformity with the ideal of the country of origin is more likely among women who migrated as adults. At the same time, the number of years spent in the destination country is not significantly associated with a shift away from the norms prevalent in the country of origin. Finally, female empowerment and gender equity show their effects mainly on the reduction of non-numeric responses.
Schlagwörter:Italy; fertility; reproductive behavior; number of children; gender role; Migrant; Italien; sozioökonomische Faktoren; Geschlechtsrolle; Gleichberechtigung; country of origin; family size; Kinderzahl; Fruchtbarkeit; Tradition; Familiengröße; generatives Verhalten; Norm; migrant; Herkunftsland; standard; equality of rights; socioeconomic factors; woman; tradition; Ideal number of children; Fertility; Migrants; Italy; Gender Norms
SSOAR Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Familiensoziologie, Sexualsoziologie, Bevölkerung
Fertility is low when there is no societal agreement on a specific gender role model
Autor/in:
Hudde, Ansgar
Quelle: Universität Bamberg, Fak. Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Professur für Demografie; Bamberg (Discussion Papers / Universität Bamberg, Professur für Demografie, 18), 2016. 32 S
Inhalt: "Many authors argue that societal fertility levels are a function of changing gender relations, but the mechanism behind this association remains unclear and mainly untested. This paper argues that the variation in realized gender roles and gender role attitudes influences fertility: a great variation in attitudes among potential
partners causes uncertainty and conflicts, which decreases people's propensity to choose to have a first or an additional child. How this idea is tested: macro-level regressions are run on 24 countries. A measure for the average gender role attitude as well as the dispersion in attitudes are regressed on the level of fertility. Attitudes
are computed through factor analysis and capture opinions towards the gendered division of given tasks and privileges, such as childrearing or the uptake of parental leave. The measure includes attitudes towards different female and male roles.
The dispersion in attitudes is the standard deviation of the factor variable in the
given country. Attitudinal information are from the ISSP 2012. The analysis gives support to the hypothesis: the greater the variation in gender role attitudes, the lower is the fertility. The association is considerably strong, significant, and holds against various robustness checks." (author's abstract)
Schlagwörter:Fruchtbarkeit; fertility; Geburtenhäufigkeit; fertility rate; Elternschaft; parenthood; generatives Verhalten; reproductive behavior; Einstellung; attitude; gender-specific factors; Geschlechterverhältnis; gender relations; Geschlechtsrolle; gender role; Partnerwahl; choice of partner; Familiengründung; family formation; Familienplanung; family planning; internationaler Vergleich; international comparison
SSOAR Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Familiensoziologie, Sexualsoziologie, Bevölkerung
On the age-specific correlation between fertility and female employment: heterogeneity over space and time in OECD-countries
Autor/in:
Brehm, Uta; Engelhardt, Henriette
Quelle: Universität Bamberg, Fak. Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Professur für Demografie; Bamberg (Discussion Papers / Universität Bamberg, Professur für Demografie, 15), 2013. 37 S
Schlagwörter:fertility; Erwerbsbeteiligung; age group; Familiengründung; OECD member country; Familienplanung; working woman; Familie-Beruf; Karriere; work-family balance; woman; family formation; OECD-Staat; Altersgruppe; labor force participation; career; berufstätige Frau; family planning; Fruchtbarkeit
SSOAR Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Familiensoziologie, Sexualsoziologie, Bevölkerung