Transition to First Birth of Immigrant Women in Germany

Nadja Milewski, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

The number of people in Germany who are of foreign origin or who have immigrant parents is growing. Our study investigates the process of family formation among immigrant women. The theoretical framework will focus mainly on socialization hypothesis versus adaptation hypothesis. The literature generally supports the latter hypothesis: The longer immigrants stay in Germany the more likely they are to adopt behavior common in the host country. We use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, carried out by the German Institute for Economic Research, Berlin. Its guest-worker and foreigner sample is currently the largest repeated survey of immigrants. We construct birth histories for about 1600 immigrant women and apply event-history techniques to the analysis of first-birth risks. Apart from standard demographic variables, such as education and religious affiliation, we include migration specific variables such as time since migration, country of origin, and migrant generation. We also consider characteristics of the partner.