Migration and fertility: reproductive trends, intensity and calendar of the foreign women in Spain.

Diego López de Lera, Universidad de la Coruña
Xiana Bueno-García, Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics / Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

In what measure are related the recent recovery of fertility in Spain and the (already) not so recent, but maintained, arrival of foreign population? In which measure contribute the foreign and Spanish women? How greater is the level of fertility of foreigners? In which extent changes in the fertile behaviours of foreign women can be interpreted like an approach to the patterns of native women? Is this an integration form? These are some of the questions outlined in the present study. The aim of this paper is to analyze the reproductive patterns of foreign women and its contribution to both evolution of births and fertility in Spain, during a recent period (1996-2005). This analysis goes beyond the general average of the foreign fertility for the Spanish case, at the same time that it shows the particularities of the behaviour patterns according to mother’s nationality. This will also allow to detect the existent differences among the main nationalities in relation to the tendency, the intensity and the calendar of their fertility, analyzing their specific weight in natality and in the recovery of the TFR in Spain. Also, we will quantify which is the contribution from children from Spanish mother and foreign father makes to total births and fertility in Spain. This is a question that, in many cases, is not considered when the contribution to fertility of foreign population is analyzed. Once the phenomena is analyzed from the general point of view, we will deepen on its structure by age, this is, the possible differences of behaviour according to age group and their national origin. These calculations will allow us to estimate in which measure takes place the real recovery of fertility of Spanish women in function of their fertile calendar and, in extent, how it happens in the case of foreign women.