Motherhood of foreign women in Lombardy: Testing the effects of migration by citizenship

Background: The international literature highlights the strong impact of the high risk of childbearing shortly after migration on period fertility, thus establishing a link between reproductive behaviors and migratory transitions. Objective: The present study aims to analyze how migration affects motherhood and the role played by country of citizenship. Although most of the literature has focused on analyzing post-immigration fertility behaviors, in the present work we follow the women for their entire fertility period. Methods: The data were collected in the 2010 ORIM survey, conducted by the Region of Lombardy and the Ismu Foundation. The survey covered about 8,000 immigrants in Lombardy, of whom 3,848 were women, age 14 years and over, who came from Less Developed Countries or Central/Eastern Europe. Using Event History Analysis, we applied discrete-time logit models to study the transition into motherhood. Results: Moroccans are characterized by a strong interrelation effect between fertility and migration. The Moroccans and Albanians are the national groups with the highest risk of having the first child during the years shortly after migration. Among Romanians, migration does not seem to have any effect on fertility behaviors: They have a lower risk of having a child regardless of their migration status. Conclusions: The study confirms the importance of the interrelationship between migratory and reproductive behaviors. It also highlights the different effects by country of citizenship, where different citizenship is often associated with different migration patterns and distinct gender roles.