Fertility and Family Dynamics in Migrant and Minority Groups

There is an ongoing discussion on the demographic consequences of migration to Europe and between European countries. The debate is not only related to migration and its impact on population development itself, but also to the processes of family formation and fertility of migrants and their descendants, as well as minority groups.

Research on migrant fertility in European countries has extensively grown in the past decade, with a major focus on fertility behavior comparing immigrants to natives at destination from an assimilation perspective. So far, the researchers belonging to the Working Group on Migrant and Minority Fertility in Europe have focused on three overarching and challenging research questions in several joint activities. The output has been published/is going to be published in several special collections in peer-reviewed international journals in population studies and migration research:

1. What are the patterns of the ideational dimension in fertility and family planning among immigrants? See special issue: New Aspects on Migration Populations in Europe: Norms, Attitudes and Intentions in Fertility and Family Planning. In: Comparative Population Studies, Vol. 43 (2018).
   
2. What role do socio-economic inequalities and cultural differences play in minority-group fertility?
   See special issue: Fertility and Social Inequalities in Migrant Populations: A Look at the Roles of Selection, Context of Reception, and Employment. In: Int. Migration & Integration (2022).
3. First, to what degree do family policies include, and are used by, migrants and their descendants? Second, to what extent do such policies promote their integration into European societies? A special collection on this topic is being published in Genus in 2023.
   https://genus.springeropen.com/use-and-consequences
   
   

The EAPS Working Group Migrant and Minority Fertility in Europe brings together researchers who work on different aspects of migrant and minority fertility:

• To discuss the applicability of different demographic approaches: e.g. tempo vs quantum, period vs cohort to migrant fertility.
• To assess to what extent national and international data sources can be used for comparative analyses and to overcome problems related to different sampling criteria, definitions of migrants etc.
• To test traditional hypotheses of migrant and minority fertility within the current European context.
• To develop a comprehensive picture of the results from various research perspectives on migrant and minority fertility, such as the comparison between several migrant groups at one destination, a migrant group from one sending country at different destinations, emigrants from one sending country to stayers in the country of origin.
• Studying the impact of meso and macro-level discontinuities such as regional disparities on the labour market or economic crises, on family formation of migrants and minorities.
• To explore the relationship between other aspects of family dynamics, such as partnership formation, and fertility.
• To carry out comparative analyses between migrant generations in order to understand the patterns, causes and consequences of intergenerational change.

Organization

The activities of the group are coordinated by a Steering Committee: Elisabeth Kraus, Nadja Milewski and Eleonora Mussino.

All EAPS members as well as scholars from other disciplines who work on migrant/minority fertility may join the Working Group and participate in its events. Joining the group's events usually is free of charge while participants are expected to cover their own travel and related costs. The Working Group is facilitated by EAPS through a modest operating budget. Furthermore, the steering committee maintains a mailing list, through which all members of the group can exchange and present their publications, inform each other about scientific events and call for papers related to migrant fertility, or circulate relevant job offers. For information, please contact the members of the steering group.

Steering committee

Elisabeth Kraus

Federal Institute for Population Research, Germany. elisabeth.kraus@bib.bund.de

Nadja Milewski

Federal Institute for Population Research, Germany. nadja.milewski@bib.bund.de

Eleonora Mussino

Stockholm University, Sweden. eleonora.mussino@sociology.su.se

News

International conference “Migration, Fertility, and Family Dynamics in Ageing Europe: New Perspectives and Methodological Approaches”, Bari (Italy), October 2-3, 2025

- Conference report –

The international conference "Migration, Fertility, and Family Dynamics in Ageing Europe: New Perspectives and Methodological Approaches" was held at the Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro in Bari, Italy, on October 2-3, 2025. This significant academic event represented a collaborative effort between the Age-It consortium (Ageing Well in an Ageing Society), the European Association for Population Studies (EAPS), and the University of Bari, Italy.

The conference was organized by Eleonora Mussino (Stockholm University and Umeå University, Sweden), Elisabeth Kraus (Federal Institute for Population Research, Germany), and Nadja Milewski (Federal Institute for Population Research, Germany), who together constitute the current steering committee of the EAPS Working Group on Fertility and Family Dynamics in Migrant and Minority Groups. Local organization was expertly managed by Anna Paterno, Thaís García-Pereiro, Maria Carella, and Roberta Pace from the University of Bari. This marked the fourth international conference organized by this influential EAPS Working Group, continuing its tradition of fostering cutting-edge research on migration and family dynamics. Generous funding from the aforementioned institutions enabled the provision of travel grants to young international scholars, ensuring diverse participation and fresh perspectives.

Over the intensive 1.5-day programme, approximately 40 researchers from various European countries and the USA actively contributed as speakers, co-authors, and session chairs, presenting more than 30 oral presentations. These contributions were organized across six thematic sessions that comprehensively explored critical dimensions of migration and family life: fertility preferences and reproductive norms among migrant populations; fertility behaviours across different migrant generations; family formation and social integration pathways; the complex intersections between migration, education, employment, and family formation; the impact of family policies on migrant families' access to services such as early childhood education and parental leave; and the role of gender preferences and gender dynamics in shaping migrant family experiences. Each presentation sparked stimulating discussions and productive debates that engaged all conference participants, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and knowledge exchange. Following the conference's success, the organizers are planning to compile a special journal issue to disseminate the scientific contributions and key findings from this important gathering.

Meetings

Events previously organized by the Working Group include:

• The 3rd international conference: "Fertility and Family Dynamics in Migrant and Minority Groups: Current Research and New Approaches in Times of Crises". The conference was organized in collaboration with the European Consortium for Sociological Research (ECSR) and was hosted by the German Federal Institute for Population
  Research (BiB). It took place place on October 12 and 13, 2023 in Wiesbaden, Germany.
• Side meeting at the European Population Conference 2022 in Groningen, The Netherlands, 29 June to 2 July 2022.
• Virtual workshop in preparation of the Genus special collection on ‘Use and consequences of family policies among migrant and ethnic minorities in Europe’, 13 December 2021
• Virtual meeting of the “Working Group on Migrant and Minority Fertility in Europe” on 18 May 2021
• Conference Children in Migrant or Ethnic Minorities: Demographic and Social Processes in a Comparative Perspective, Rostock, Germany, 16-17 May 2019
• Side meeting at the European Population Conference 2018 in Brussels, Belgium, June 2018.
• Workshop on migrant and minority fertility in Hannover, February 2017
• Side meeting at the European Population Conference 2016 in Mainz, Germany, September 2016.

Members of the Working Group

• Ayşe Abbasoğlu Özgören, Hacettepe University Institute of Population Studies
• Liili Abuladze, Estonian Institute for Population Studies, Tallinn University, Estonia & Population Research Institute, Väestöliito, Finland
• Alicia Adsera, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs & Office of Population Research (OPR), Princeton University, US
• Giammarco Alderotti, Department of Statistics, University of Florence, Italy
• Gunnar Andersson, Stockholm University Demography Unit (SUDA), Sweden
• Bianca Bruening, Sociology Department, Leibniz University Hannover, Germany
• Xiana Bueno García, Center for Demographic Studies, Catalonia
• Martin Bujard, Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB), Germany
• Erik Carlsson, University of Turku, Finland
• Chiara Ludovica Comolli, University of Bologna, Italy
• Sylvie Dubuc, Strasbourg Institute of Demography (IDUS), Strasbourg University, France
• Tatiana Eremenko, University of Salamanca, Spain
• José Luis Estévez, Population Research Institute, Väestöliitto, Finland
• Marcus Fraga, Laval University, Canada
• Giuseppe Gabrielli, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
• Thaís García-Pereiro, University of Bari, Italy
• Hanne Gaukel, University of Milan, Italy
• Roberto Impicciatore, University of Bologna, Italy
• Anne-Kristin Kuhnt, University of Rostock, Germany
• Chia Liu, School of Geography and Sustainable Development University of St Andrews, Scotland
• Mimmi Lounela, Stockholm University Demography Unit (SUDA), Sweden
• Leen Marynissen, Department of Sociology, University of Antwerp, Belgium
• Nasim Ahamed Mondal, University of Warsaw, Poland
• Karel Neels, Centre for Population, Family & Health, University of Antwerp, Belgium
• Riccardo Omenti, University of Bologna
• Livia Elisa Ortensi, University of Bologna, Italy
• Ariane Pailhé, Institut National d'Etudes Démographiques (INED), France
• Anna Paterno, University of Bari, Italy
• Alberto del Rey, University of Salamanca, Spain
• Michaela Sedovicova, Comenius University Bratislava, Slovakia
• Tomas Sobotka, Vienna Institute of Demography (Austrian Academy of Sciences) / Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital, Austria
• Ekaterina Sokolova, Eurasian Technological University (ETU), Almaty, Kazachstan
• Mikolaj Stanek, Department of Sociology and Communication, University of Salamanca, Spain
• Manuela Stranges, Department of Economics, Statistics and Finance “Giovanni Anania”, University of Calabria, Italy
• Salvatore Strozza, Department of Political Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
• Marianne Tonnessen, Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research (NIBR), Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway
• Eleonora Trappolini, University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy
• Citlali Trigos-Raczkowski, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research/ University of Helsinki Center for Social Inequalities in Population Health
• Daniël van Wijk, Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI), The Netherlands
• Ben Wilson, Stockholm University Demography Unit (SUDA), Sweden
• Jonas Wood, Centre for Population, Family & Health, University of Antwerp, Belgium
• Kelsey Wright, Helsinki Institute for Demography and Population Health
• Sergei Zakharov, Laboratoire SAGE (Sociétés, Acteurs, Gouvernement en Europe) & Institut de Démographie, Université de Strasbourg
• Min Zhou, University of Victoria, Canada