Is the Combination of the Nationalities of the Couple Affecting Women’s Fertility Intentions? Insights from Italy

Abstract

Literature on migrants’ fertility intentions has grown significantly in recent years. However, to the best of our knowledge, none of these studies has investigated the role that the combination of partners’ nationalities may play in individual’s intentions to have a(another) child. Filling this gap is particularly relevant for research because fertility behaviors tend to vary greatly according to the type of couple and fertility intentions have been identified as good predictors of future fertility behaviors. The central aim of this paper is to fill this gap unravelling and quantifying the influence of the selection, socialization and adaptation hypotheses in positive and certain fertility intentions of women in mixed (foreign woman-Italian man) and endogamous couples (Italian woman-Italian man, foreign woman-foreign man). Our results point out to migrant selectivity as a potential explanation for differences on fertility intentions between foreign women partnered to Italian men and foreign women partnered to foreign men. We also find support for adaptation observing that childbearing intentions of foreign women partnered to Italian men better resemble those of Italian women partnered to Italian men. However, there is a gradient on the explanatory power of the adaptation hypothesis according to the nationality of the foreign woman.