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The Transnational Making of Population: Migration, Marriage and Fertility Between Morocco and Italy

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Abstract

The aim of this article is to consider how migration and fertility constitute interrelated events among Moroccan women in Italy. Through a qualitative approach, I analyse the evolution of their life courses, exploring how these women, with their partners, manage to have children in migration. This viewpoint is particularly relevant considering the Italian context, which has historically been characterized by low fertility rates. I argue that the interweaving of migration and fertility these women deploy between Morocco and Italy stems from a transnational mobilization of reproductive resources, namely an array of relations, practices and values that make marriage, childbearing and the raising of offspring sustainable and attractive in migration. Through this frame, I reconstruct the ways these women manage their fertility, distinguishing between expected and unexpected children. Finally, I describe the process through which they achieve multi-child families (4–6 children).

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Notes

  1. See Johnson-Hanks (2002) for a critical discussion of family planning and modernity.

  2. For an understanding of Bledsoe’s theoretical proposal in terms of the legitimacy hypothesis, see Bohon-Conley (2015, pp. 99–100)

  3. The fieldwork was carried out in collaboration with Alessandra Gribaldo and with the assistance of Serena Piovesan.

  4. All the personal names in the next pages and in Figs. 2 and 3 are pseudonyms. The empirical research was conducted in full compliance with the ethical code drafted by ISA: http://www.isa-sociology.org/en/about-isa/code-of-ethics/.

  5. For further references to the Moroccan female culture of migration and the representation of migration as an opportunity for female social mobility, see Decimo (2005) and Salih (2003).

  6. The attack was eventually claimed by the group Fronte Skinhead and covered by the main national newspapers. In order to protect the anonymity of the interviewees, I have chosen not to provide any other details.

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Acknowledgments

The research on which this article is based was financially supported by the Fondazione Caritro (ref. 2012.308). I would like to thank Paolo Boccagni and Giuseppe Sciortino for having carefully read a draft of this article and for their precious comments, and the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable remarks. A different version of this paper has been presented at the 114th ASA Conference (August 10-13, 2019, New York) in the session “Fertility in the Life Course”: I thank Laura Bernardi and all the participants for their suggestions. I’m also very grateful to Nancy Foner, Alessandra Gribaldo and David Kertzer for having discussed preliminary versions of this work and for their important contributions to improving it.

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  1. Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento, Trento, Italy

    Francesca Decimo

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Decimo, F. The Transnational Making of Population: Migration, Marriage and Fertility Between Morocco and Italy. Int. Migration & Integration 22, 289–310 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-019-00736-2

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