Sex imbalances at birth in migratory context in Western Europe: evidence from Italy

This paper aims to explore SRB of migrants in Italy in order to shed light on the phenomenon of sex selection at birth and to help to address policies against that practice. Recent studies addressed the same issue for migrants or Indian and Chinese origin living in Italy (Meldolesi 2012; Blangiardo and Rimoldi 2012). Our objective is to go beyond these previous studies, analyzing births from mothers with a foreign background from countries where sex selection at birth is widespread and that are among the largest immigrant communities in Italy, including Albania and Montenegro, China, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Data stems from the Survey on births from the Resident Population Registers and from the First Regional Survey on Sexual and Reproductive Health of Migrant Women held in Lombardy in 2010. Average SRB will be calculated for the period 1999-2011 by birthplace of mother. We will analyze births of first, second and third order. A comparison with SRB in the origin countries will be provided. Using a multilevel approach the relation among SRB of children and the mothers’ eventual experience of abortion will be explored.