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Comparing the fertility of Ghanaian migrants in Europe with nonmigrants in Ghana

Open access
Wolf, Katharina, Mulder, Clara H.·2019·Population, Space and Place
DOI 10.1002/psp.2171
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Abstract

The fertility behaviour of migrants is often studied by examining migrants and native nonmigrants in the country of destination. To understand the mechanisms for migrant fertility, it is important to know what distinguishes them from the population they originate from. The Ghanaian sample of the "Migrations between Africa and Europe" project allows us to contrast the fertility of those who never emigrated from Ghana and Ghanaian migrants who are residing in the UK or the Netherlands. First, we estimate discrete‐time hazard models of first birth to evaluate whether first birth timing is influenced by migration. Second, we apply Poisson regression techniques to examine differentials in completed fertility. We find that Ghanaian migrants postpone first childbirth compared with nonmigrants. Differences are largest at ages 20 to 24 for women and 20 to 29 for men. Ghana experiences a typical brain drain, which means that especially the highly skilled emigrate. In our sample, this is particularly true for women. Education seems to be an important determinant of the postponement of first childbirth in Ghana, although we cannot clearly attribute migrants' later first births to their higher level of education. However, our findings on completed fertility reveal that migrants have fewer children than nonmigrants and this difference diminishes considerably if we take into account their level of education. Apparently, migrants do not fully catch up after postponing first childbirth and end up with a lower number of children by the age of 40.

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  • Among regions, TFR decreased with increasing education for females.

    “Among regions (Fig. 1), TFR decreased with increasing education for females, supporting earlier studies (e.g. [18, 19, 21, 62]).”

    From Human fertility in relation to education, economy, religion, contraception, and family planning programs (2020) · cites this paper as [62]

    Section 5.2 (page unavailable) says migrants’ higher education partly explains their lower completed fertility, especially for women. The Discussion (page unavailable) likewise links education to the number of children born by age 40. Neither passage reports TFR decreasing across regions with each increase in female education; the paper’s TFR comparison concerns countries, not education levels. (LLM, conf=0.84)

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Research works printed but not linked: 7

  1. [9]9. Bump, M. (2006). Ghana: Searching for opportunities at home and abroad. Retrieved from http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/ ghana-searching-opportunities-home-and-abroad. [Accessed 03.02. 2016, 17:22].
  2. [28]28. Jones-Bos, Renée (2005). The Dutch perspective on contemporary migra- tions, At home in the world? International Migration and Development in Contemporary Ghana and West Africa. Accra: Sub Saharan Publishers, pp. 103-117.
  3. [31]31. Kraus, E. K. (2016). Fertility behaviour of migrants and nonmigrants from a couple perspective. The case of Senegalese in Europe. In Presented at European Population Conference 2016, Mainz, Germany.
  4. [39]39. Migration Policy Institute (2013). Trends in international migrant stock: Migrants by origin and destination, 2015 revision. Tabulation of data from the United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/data/ estimates2/estimates15.shtml, [Accessed 16.06.2016, 15:09].
  5. [42]42. Perez-Patron, M. J. (2012). A life-course approach to international migration: The importance of family. (Dissertation), The Johns Hopkins University.
  6. [54]54. The World Bank (2016). World development indicators: Total fertility rate. [Accessed 13 April 2016, 16:22].
  7. [56]56. Twum-Baah, K. A. (2005). Volume and characteristics of international Ghanaian migration, At home in the world? International migration and development in contemporary Ghana and West Africa. Accra: Sub-Saharan Publishers, pp. 55-77.

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Authors
Wolf, K., & Mulder, C. H.
Affiliations
University of Groningen (NL)
Corresponding author
Mulder, Clara H.
ORCID
Venue
Population, Space and Place
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2018-06-25
Volume
25
Issue
2
ISSN
  • 1544-8444 (ISSN-L)
  • 1544-8452
DOI
10.1002/psp.2171
OpenAlex
W2885794241
Cited by
32
References
52
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 3
FWCI
7.96
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Population Space and Place (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Migration and Labor Dynamics
  • Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Reproductive Health and Contraception
Keywords
migrant fertility, Ghanaian migrants, timing of first birth, completed fertility, fertility differentials, brain drain, education and fertility, Netherlands

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