PhD Lisa Van Landschoot

Migration and Fertility

2010-2019 | university funding

The fertility patterns of migrant populations have mainly been studied from a comparative perspective. Earlier studies have either analysed the fertility behaviour of migrants in comparison with non-migrants or analysed fertility patterns over migrant generations. However, a migrant population can hardly be considered as a homogenous group and one should also take into account their within-group diversity when analysing their fertility behaviour. This PhD aims to contribute to the literature by focussing on one aspects of their heterogeneity by including the origin and generation of the partner. We focus on Belgium, as the Belgium government recruited migrants to fulfil labour shortages after the Second World War and the children of these labour migrants (i.e. the second generation) are now reaching the age of family formation.

To situate the fertility behaviour of migrant populations in Belgium, we first of all analyse whether women of foreign origin are responsible for the fertility revival during the beginning of the 21st Century (Article 1). In the second part of this PhD, we focus on second-generation women and analyse how their chances of becoming a mother (Article 2) or their chances of having two or more children (Article 3) are related to the origin and generation of the male partner. Third, in our final article (Article 4) we focus next to second-generation women on second-generation men and analyse if and how their partner choice is related to their fertility behaviour.