Summary

Abstract

This doctoral thesis investigates the impact of international migration on the transitions to a first, second, and third child among women from Turkey, former Yugoslavian states, Greece, Spain, and Italy who have immigrated to West Germany. A distinction is made between first-generation immigrants and their descendants. International migration is associated with rapid changes in the migrants’ environment. These changes usually take place within a much shorter time span than societies alter as a whole. Immigrants have to cope with these changes quickly. Therefore, a study of the demographic behavior of migrants enables us to gain insights into the patterns and speed of the demographic responses of individuals or groups to the sudden environmental changes they are exposed to. The life-course approach allows us to analyze the sequencing of several events, and, therefore, to study the short-term as well as the long-term effects of migration on a person’s life.