Fertility Disrupted: The Effects of Migration and Country of Origin on Immigrant Women's Fertility

Stephanie Nawyn, University of Southern California

Previous research has found ample evidence that immigrant women experience a disruption effect in their fertility caused by migration. However, much research on immigrant women’s fertility either focuses on one specific group of immigrants or aggregates all foreign-born women together, regardless of their countries of origin. Using data from the 1995 Current Population Survey (CPS) June Supplement, I tested the disruption model of immigrant women’s fertility, examining the differences in transition to post-migration fertility across countries of origin. While I did find that the disruption effect varied across countries of origin, a lower total fertility rate did not translate into a longer disruption as I expected. Additionally, my analyses suggest that there are other fertility norms affecting immigrant women’s fertility that are not encapsulated by the total fertility rate. The historical time in which women migrated to the U.S. and education were strongly associated with the length of fertility disruptions.