Fertility Patterns of Child Migrants: Age at Migration and Ancestry in Comparative Perspective

This article examines the fertility of women who migrated as children to one of three OECD countries-Canada, the United Kingdom, and France-and how it differs from that of native-born women, by age at migration. By looking at child migrants whose fertility behavior is neither interrupted by the migration event nor confounded by selection, the authors obtain a unique perspective on the adaptation process as a mechanism that explains variation in observed foreign and native-born fertility differentials. The authors find patterns that are broadly consistent with the adaptation hypothesis-which posits that as migrants become accustomed to their host countries, their fertility norms begin to resemble those of the native population-and, on average, limited cross-national variation in fertility differentials. The effect of exposure to the host country, however, seems to vary by country of origin, a finding that underscores the importance of taking into account the heterogeneity of the foreign-born population.