Does moving disrupt immigrant fertility? The case of Canada

Ana Ferrer, University of Calgary

In this paper we examine one aspect of the fertility decisions of immigrant families, namely whether migration disrupts the fertility of immigrants, sometimes referred to as the Disruption Hypothesis. Assessing the fertility experience of immigrants in the first years in the host country may be crucial in determining their economic assimilation into the new country, as households with infants usually face larger expenses and are constrained in the amount of time that can be supplied in the labour market. We use the 20 percent sample of the confidential files of the Canadian Census of Population for the years 1991 through 2006, to examine the probability of the presence of infants in recent immigrant households and investigate whether significant differences exist conditioning on immigrant’s place of birth or education level. In addition, we explore whether cohorts effects are important in explaining the changes in fertility patterns for recent immigrants.