The fertility of immigrant children in Canada

What is it about?

We analysed the fertility of women who migrated to Canada before reaching age 19, using the Canadian censuses from 1991 to 2006. Fertility increases with age at immigration, and is particularly high for those immigrating in late adolescence. This pattern prevails regardless of the country of origin, and of whether the mother tongue of the migrants was an official language in Canada. The fertility of those for whom it was an official language is always lower on average than of those for whom it was not, but there does not seem to be a critical age at which the fertility of the former and the latter starts to diverge. Formal education has an effect: the fertility of immigrants who arrived in Canada at any age before adulthood and who were or became college graduates is similar to that of their native peers.

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Why is it important?

Countries with large immigration flows need to understand newcomers' choices regarding fertility, marriage, education and the labour market in order to correctly assess future demographic and economic trends