International migration and family dynamics

The changes in religious composition in Austria since 1970 have important consequences on intergroup relationships and family formation. Using data from the 1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001 Population Censuses, this paper investigates trends and determinants of religious intermarriage in Austria. The major questions are: 1) whether religious homogamy has declined over time given the secularizing trend and how this temporal process differs by gender, religious denomination, and geographical region; 2) whether religious homogamy intersects with assortative mating along other dimensions e.g. education and migration status; and 3) what individual and contextual factors explain religious intermarriage. Overall, we find that between 1971-2001, religious intermarriage has been increasing in Austria, especially among Roman Catholics and Protestants, women, and people residing in Vienna. Moreover, we find no evidence that religious homogamy can be explained by assortative mating along other dimensions i.e. couples with the same level of education or migration status do not necessarily have higher rates of religious homogamy. Finally, individuals in younger birth cohorts, with higher educational attainment, living in a residential area, with high composition of out-group religious members have higher propensity to be in interreligious marriage.

This study analyses the risks and timing of first and second births among four groups: native Estonians, first and second generation immigrant Russians in Estonia, and the immigrants’ origin country population – Russians in Russia. Estonia provides an interesting case where immigration processes occurred earlier than in other Western European countries, and one third of the population consists of foreign-origin population. The aim of the study is to test migration effects on fertility through testing different hypotheses, including selectivity. The Generations and Gender Survey provides internationally comparable data with life history approach from two countries – Estonia and Russia. Piece-wise constant exponential models are used to analyse birth parameters of male and female respondents born between 1924 and 1983, living in urban areas. Sex, birth cohort, educational attainment, type of region of origin, age at migration, partner’s country of birth and age at first birth are included as control variables. Findings do not indicate first generation migrants’ fertility convergence towards native Estonians for both first and second birth. Second generation migrants have socialised to the host society when the first birth is concerned, but the socialisation hypothesis is not confirmed in case of second birth.

This paper examines the effects of transnational migration on the families left behind, focusing on the experiences of ageing parents and strains placed on the intergenerational contract. This study draws on qualitative fieldwork initially conducted in in Chennai, India with 30 sets of parents, whose children were residing abroad as software engineers, as well as their non-migrant children. Semi structured interviews explored the effects of migration on family dynamics, with a specific focus on the experiences of ageing parents over time.

I find that the intergenerational contract in the context of traditional Indian society is strained by migration, making the analogy to a give-and-take spring where the parents are more accommodating, balancing force as the ‘givers’ supporting their children’s ambitions abroad. Parents are adopting strategies to prevent an irreversible damage to the culturally implicit contract between the generations, such as taking on new duties like becoming transnational carers to grandchildren and their children’s capital assets, as well as putting in place survival strategies such as keeping a child behind. However, as frailty and ill-health move in, there is increased demand for absent children to return to fulfill their dutiful obligations placing strain on intergenerational relationships.

The Canadian population is aging, which has long-term implications for economic growth and the demand for housing, health care, and other services. Elderly immigrants are a growing segment of Canada’s aging population. Canada’s aging population has also become more diverse because of immigration from Asia and other non-traditional (that is, non-European or North American) sources in recent decades. This research focuses on living arrangements of elderly immigrants in Canada. Studying the living arrangements of elderly immigrants is important as these affect levels of social support, dependence on welfare programs, health status, social isolation, general well-being, and other issues. We examine data from the 2006 Canadian census with three purposes. First, we present a portrait of living arrangements of elderly immigrants. Secondly, we examine the relationship of selected sociodemographic characteristics such as age at immigration, period of immigration, region of origin, gender, marital status, education, and home language with type of living arrangements. And finally, we discuss social and policy implications of living arrangements of elderly immigrants, including issues related to inter-generational relations, social and economic support, social integration, and wellbeing of elderly immigrants.

This paper examines the relationship between family structure (indicated by presence of partner, young child, and another adult) and labour force participation of immigrant women. Immigrant women have lower labour force participation rates than Canadian-born women. Presence of partner, young child, and another adult are each associated with lower labour force participation for all women, with young child showing the largest association. Multivariate analyses confirm the negative effect of each indicator of family structure and the lower participation of immigrant women compared to Canadian-born women, with some exceptions. Family structure effects differ for partnered and non-partnered women, particularly the diminished effect of presence of young child on non-partnered women’s labour force participation. The findings suggest that ways to increase immigrant women’s labour force participation are mostly similar to those for increasing women’s labour force participation in general, including increasing educational attainment and providing childcare facilities for women with young children. Because most immigrant women are still less likely to be in the labour force, more research is needed on factors associated with immigrant ethnic groups that may discourage women’s labour force participation.

The new immigrant flow to Brazil, characterized by the strong presence of Latin American, dated at least 40 years ago and nowadays an expressive number of families were formed in Sao Paulo city, result of the reunification process and formation of new families. This fact that raises the question about the second and the 1.5 generation of immigrants. As defined for Waters, Kasinitz, Mollenkopf (2004), second and the 1.5 generation are people whose parents were immigrants but who themselves were born or substantially raised in receiving country. But despite the presence of the Latin American second generations in Sao Paulo, especially in many schools, little is known about it. Therefore, this study concerns about the second generation of Latin American in Sao Paulo Metropolitan Area, through the examination of the 2000 and 2010 Census data.

The main purpose of this study is to explore the direction of mobility and socioeconomic differentials in fertility among foreign wives in Korea. Special attention is focused on the effects of foreign wives’ perception for upward mobility on fertility. Changes in relative economic status through marriage are referred to as the direction of mobility, as highly influential factors to explain the fertility behavior of foreign wives. An analytical model of the causal structure was set up with direction of mobility, and socioeconomic level as explanation variables for this study. The 2009 Korean National Multi-culture Family Survey was used. The study sample is composed of foreign wives (Korean-Chinese, Han-Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipina and Cambodian) under the age of 49 married to Korean men. Preliminary results of the analysis are found to be consistent with the hypothesis of the direction of mobility. The perception for direction of mobility exerts an independent effect on fertility, apart from socioeconomic and demographic variables. The results show that foreign wives who perceive their marriage as upward mobility tend to have a greater number of children.

Filipino families are characterized by their adherence to filial norms and strong family ties. In the absence of a formal welfare system, the family provides a stable reservoir of security and support. This familial support expectation is interesting to explore in the context of increasing geographic mobility, both internal and international, of Filipinos.
Despite considerable internal and international migration of Filipinos, our understanding of how this phenomenon affects family relationship is still limited. The view of migrants as children with responsibilities and expectations to provide parental care, for example, has not been sufficiently explored in the literature.
Using data from the 2007 Philippine Longitudinal Survey of Older people, this paper analyses how support is exchanged between older parents in the Philippines and their migrant children.
Results reinforce the strong ties in Filipino families as manifested in the bidirectional flow of exchange between parents and children. Types of support exchanged also depend on the parents and children’s capacity to provide support, their circumstances in the life course and the geographic distance between them, as measured by migrant children’s location.

La famille d’origine burkinabè au Ghana a connu de profondes mutations ces dernières décennies sous l’effet des crises politiques et économiques et des nouvelles politiques de population. Outre les évolutions vers des modèles familiaux plus restreints, l’affaiblissement des liens familiaux et des pratiques de solidarité, la famille d’origine burkinabè se caractérise aujourd’hui par une matriarcalisation traversée par des conflits et tensions identitaires entre pères et enfants. La détérioration continue du statut économique et social du père sous l’effet des crises et le renforcement de celui de la mère d’origine ghanéenne dans bien des cas a abouti à la construction de l’image de la mère «Big mother», «battante et dévouée» à qui les enfants s’attachent et s’identifient au détriment du père devenu «incapable» et attaché à la préséance que lui confère son système patrilinéaire de référence dans le rapport des enfants à leurs parents. Se sentant délaissés dans un contexte de forte mutation et de faible couverture sociale formelle par une progéniture qui a mieux réussi son ascension sociale, les vieux migrants, retraités et usés, se reconvertissent dans le commerce ou l’agriculture urbaine ou reprennent des emplois de veilleurs ou de manœuvres tout en s’inventant des nouveaux espaces de solidarité.

Using data from the British Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), we examine the relationship between family structure and overweight/obesity in early childhood, exploring whether and how it varies both by family structure and maternal nativity status. Because the resources available to different family types, and the form and function of the family, are likely to vary across different nativity groups, a closer examination of heterogeneous effects by mother’s nativity status may shed light on the underlying processes that drive gaps in well-being by family structure. First generation migrants are often married but they tend also to be disadvantaged socio-economically. Nonetheless, migrants and their children also tend to have better health outcomes. Preliminary findings suggest that the predominant explanations for child health gaps by family structure may be less pertinent for first and second generation migrant mothers who are less able to use their marital status to attain greater or higher quality resources.