(Withdrawn) Fertility behavior of immigrants in Canada: converging trends

Gebremariam Woldemicael, University of Western Ontario
Roderic Beaujot, University of Western Ontario

With the increased importance of immigration to population change in Canada, it is important to follow the fertility of immigrants. Using data from the 2002 Ethnic Diversity Survey (EDS), this paper compares fertility behavior across four groups of generations: recent and long-term immigrants of 1st generation, plus second and third generations. The objectives are to first examine the extent to which the fertility patterns of these generation groups differ. We subsequently explore to what extent the fertility variations among generations as well as by place of birth and age at arrival of immigrants can be explained by socio-demographic and other cultural factors. Several important findings emerge from this study: First, consistent with previous studies, we have documented highest current fertility among recent immigrants, but it is lowest in the second generation. Second, although cumulative fertility tends to be significantly higher among long-term immigrants than recent immigrants, it becomes more similar to that of second and successive generations after adjusting for the socio-demographic compositions. This suggests that it is not generation per se, but compositional characteristics associated with generation groups that cause fertility differentials. It can be argued that differences in the fertility patterns of long-time immigrants in Canada are likely to diminish as their socio-economic and cultural characteristics converge to those of the Canadian-born women. This study also documents ethnic minority and age at arrival differences, suggesting higher fertility for those who are less acculturated or assimilated into the society.