Short-term reproductive behaviour of foreign women who became mothers between 2002-2006 in Italy
Journal: Vienna Yearbook of Population Research
Volume: 2009, pages 63 - 82
Publisher: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
DOI: 10.1553/populationyearbook2009s63
Eleonora Mussino (1), Claudia Iaccarino (2), Sabrina Prati (3), and Salvatore Strozza (4)
(1) (author of correspondence), Department of Social Economic, Actuarial and Demographic Studies, “Sapienza” University of Rome, Viale Regina Elena 295, 00161 Roma, Italy, Email: Eleonora.mussino@uniroma1.it
(2) Department of Population Education and Culture, Italian National Statistical Institute, Rome, Italy.
(3) Department of Population Education and Culture, Italian National Statistical Institute, Rome, Italy.
(4)
Department of Statistical Science, Federico II-University of Naples, Naples, Italy.
Abstract
The rapid increase in the number of foreigners in Italy has raised public interest in their demographic behaviour. In 2001-2007 the annual number of births to at least one foreign parent has more than doubled, from about 41,000 to more than 86,000. The main objective of this study is to give an overview of the demographic characteristics of foreign mothers in Italy. We investigate the risk of having another birth for women who became mothers between 2002 and 2006. The new approach in this study is the application of a deterministic record linkage to Italian administrative data on births, which allows a longitudinal analysis of birth histories. The results show that citizenship remains one of the most important factors in explaining the high heterogeneity in the reproductive behaviour among the mothers. The possibility of an ‘assimilative behaviour’ to fertility patterns of native Italians increases for mothers whose partner is Italian.