Migraciones (Nov 2014)
Fertility determinants of moroccan women in Italy and in the home-country: some interpretative models
Abstract
In the frame of the study of migrants’ familial structures,the analysis of the evolution of reproductive behaviors of foreign collectivities plays a major role in the Italian context, where, as it is well-known, the local fertility is much lower than the replacement level. Applying a multivariate analysis, the study aims at investigating the main determinants of Moroccan fertility both in the home country and in Italy to analyze if they are convergent or divergentin the two different settings considered, and to evaluate if the migrationis an event which has an important impact on the reproductive behavior.The analysis is carried out using data stemming from two recent surveys conducted in the countries under investigation: on one side, the Enquête sur la Population et la Santé Familiale (EPSF),conducted in Morocco between 2003 and 2004; on the other side, some recent surveys carried out on the Moroccan collectivity between 2001 and 2002 in four selected areas of the Italian territory. Several indicators seem to suggest the effect of migration on the number of children. Migration influences the reproductive behavior,differentiating it between the migrant and the non-migrant groups.
