Fertility and Family Dynamics in Migrant and Minority Groups

What is the relationship between partnership formation and fertility in migrant families?

What patterns, causes, and consequences of intergenerational change can we find in different migrant generations?

What is the impact of meso and macro-level discontinuities on family formation of migrants and minorities?

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:

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

Next meeting

The Working Group organizes a side meeting at the next European Population Conference (EPC 2024) in Edinburgh. The meeting is planned for 12th June 13:00-17:00.

New special collection has been published

The Special Issue "Use and consequences of family policies among migrants and their descendants in Europe" (edited by Eleonora Mussino, Elisabeth Kraus and Nadja Milewski) has been published in Genus. The collection contains 6 empirical papers and one introduction. Check out: https://genus.springeropen.com/use-and-consequences

Downloads

Introduction to special issue has been published

The Introduction to the Special Issue "Fertility and social inequalities in migrant populations" (edited by Nadja Milewski and Alicia Adserà) has been published in the Journal of International Migration and Integration! The collection contains 12 empirical papers dealing with the heterogeneity in fertility among migrant and ethnic minority groups. Check out the Introduction and a full list of all articles of the Special Issue here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12134-022-01003-7

Meetings

Events previously organized by the Working Group include:

Members of the Working Group