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Does Migrant Background Matter for Adolescents’ Fertility Preferences? The Latin American 1.5 Generation in Spain

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Abstract

This article examines the fertility preferences of Latin American adolescents of the 1.5 generation and their native peers in Spain. We compare their expected age at first birth as well as their expected family size. The fertility preferences of the 1.5 generation are likely to reflect the family values of two different socialization environments as well as the adaptation process to the childbearing norms of the host society. The analysis is based on the Chances Survey, which collected data from 2700 adolescents in secondary schools in Madrid in 2011. Results indicate that fertility timing preferences of Latin American adolescents reflect socialization influences from the society of origin, but also a quick adaptation to the childbearing norms in the host society, since their expected age at first birth is somewhat earlier than that of their Spanish peers but considerably later than that prevailing in their country of origin. The degree of social integration, measured by the number of the respondent’s best friends who were Spanish, seems more important than age at migration for diminishing the gap between Latin Americans and Spaniards. Moreover, higher educational expectations are associated with preferences for postponed entry into parenthood. With regard to family size expectations, we find no significant variation between adolescents of migrant and native origin, confirming the argument that the “two-child norm” currently prevails in both middle- and high-income countries.

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Fig. 1

Source: INE, Population Figures and birth microdata

Fig. 2

Source: Chances Students’ Survey 2011

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Notes

  1. The terms 1.5 generation and child migrants are used interchangeably throughout this article. Both terms refer to individuals who were born abroad and who migrated (with one/both parents or following them) during childhood or adolescence.

  2. The median age at first birth hovers around 21–22 in Bolivia, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Peru, according to Demographic and Health Survey data (Table 1). Only women with tertiary education display a later age at first birth, ranging from 23.8 in the Dominican Republic to 27.2 in Colombia. Nevertheless, even among Latin American women with university studies age at first birth is considerably earlier than among Spanish women with tertiary education (mean age of 33.6 in 2014).

  3. In 2011, the unemployment rate among extra-EU migrants (34.6%) was well above that of Spaniards (19.7%). Similarly, the wage gap between immigrants and natives has also broadened with the economic crisis (Martínez-Molina et al. 2014).

  4. The data collection was carried out under the framework of the Chances Project: Aspirations, expectations and life-course orientations of immigrant and non-immigrant origin youth in Spain. The role of the social context and intergenerational conflict. The research project and the data collection were co-directed by Amparo González-Ferrer (CSIC) and Héctor Cebolla-Boado (UNED). http://chancesproject.es.

  5. At the time of the 2011 Census, the overall share of the foreign-born population in Madrid was 17%. The Latin America-born population represented 57% of the total immigrant population in Madrid (Instituto Nacional de Estadística 2011).

  6. In addition to the students’ questionnaire, the parents completed a parallel questionnaire at home. However, parental response rates were low: 38.8% among immigrant-origin parents and 48.5% among native parents.

  7. Logistic regression models predicting the likelihood of a missing response in expected age at first child, and controlling for the same covariates as in the full model of Table 5, show that boys and native students are slightly more likely not to provide an answer.

  8. We could not distinguish between these two groups, as this variable would be highly correlated with the measure for origin. Additional analyses focusing only on migrants showed no statistically significant differences in expected fertility timing by age at migration.

  9. A multinomial logit analysis to examine the propensity to depart from the two-child norm was also performed, but substantial conclusions did not change.

  10. These numbers are relatively close to those recorded at the national level. According to PISA-2012, the percentage of immigrant students that have repeated at least a year of school before the age of 15 (54.9%) is much higher than among native students (30%) (Calero and Escardíbul 2016).

  11. The relatively high rates of abortion among Latin American women residing in Spain suggest a high incidence of unwanted pregnancy. According to data from the Ministry of Health, 24% of all induced abortions in Spain during 2014 were to Latin American women.

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Acknowledgements

The research leading to these results has received funding from CSIC, Juan March Institute and Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, under Grant Agreement CSO2012-35234, for the Chances Project “Aspirations, expectations and life-course orientations of immigrant and non-immigrant origin youth in Spain. The role of the social context and intergenerational conflict”, co-directed by Amparo González-Ferrer and Héctor Cebolla-Boado. Additional funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under Grant Agreement 320116 for the research project FamiliesAndSocieties is also gratefully acknowledged. We are very grateful for the comments and support given by Amparo González-Ferrer and for the useful suggestions of anonymous reviewers.

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  1. Department of Political and Social Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain

    Elisabeth K. Kraus

  2. Institute of Economics, Geography and Demography, Centre for Human and Social Sciences, CSIC, Madrid, Spain

    Teresa Castro-Martín

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Appendix

Appendix

See Fig. 2 and Tables 7, 8 and 9.

Table 7 Parental education of Ecuadorian adolescents aged 14–16 living in Ecuador and in Spain at the time of the last census
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Table 8 OLS regression models for desired age at first child for Spanish and Latin American adolescents
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Table 9 Poisson’s regression models for desired number of children for Spanish and Latin American adolescents (incidence rate ratios)
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Kraus, E.K., Castro-Martín, T. Does Migrant Background Matter for Adolescents’ Fertility Preferences? The Latin American 1.5 Generation in Spain. Eur J Population 34, 277–312 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10680-017-9427-3

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