Titolo della tesi: Migrants and Motherhood: Unveiling the Fertility Trends of Migrant Women in Italy
Abstract of the thesis
This doctoral thesis investigates the fertility patterns of migrant women in Italy through a multi-dimensional approach, offering new insights and contributing significantly to the existing literature on this topic. It examines how migration has shaped Italy’s demographic trends amidst declining fertility and increasing longevity, making it particularly relevant to the country’s current socio-demographic challenges.
The first chapter establishes the theoretical framework for the empirical analyses presented in the subsequent three chapters, contextualising Italy’s declining fertility rates within broader migration trends. The chapter outlines key theories on migrant fertility behaviours and intentions and discusses them in relation to the fertility and family patterns of migrant populations in Italy. This chapter underscores the novelty of examining migrant fertility as a key factor in reshaping the country’s demographic profile over time.
The second chapter, based on data from the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) Registration for Birth in the Municipal Population Register (Rilevazione delle nascite), introduces previously unpublished data on age-specific fertility rates (ASFR) and total fertility rates (TFR) for Italy’s migrant population, focusing on the five largest foreign citizenship groups in Italy: Romanians, Albanians, Moroccans, Chinese, and Ukrainians. Through a Kitagawa decomposition analysis, the chapter reveals that the differences in fertility rates over time between citizenship groups are driven both by age structure and fertility propensity. The results show that while certain groups, such as Moroccans and Albanians, exhibit higher fertility rates than Italian women, others, like Romanians and Ukrainians, display fertility rates closer to those of Italian women, with a trend towards convergence over time. This chapter represents a significant contribution to the understanding of fertility dynamics in Italy, providing a novel quantification of compositional effects, accounting for roughly one-third of the fertility differentials between Italian and migrant births. Among the five largest foreign groups, Moroccans and Chinese show the highest rate effect, while Romanians, Albanians, and Ukrainians display a more significant compositional effect in explaining fertility differentials.
The third chapter assesses the role of access to and uptake of childcare services in shaping fertility intentions and behaviours among both native and migrant women, using data from the 2012 Birth Sample Survey conducted by ISTAT and applying multinomial logistic regression analysis. The results indicate that access to formal childcare significantly influences fertility behaviours, with mothers who accessed such services for a previous child being more likely to have higher fertility behaviours compared to those with unmet childcare needs. Notably, the use of childcare services affects native and migrant mothers differently, with native mothers being more dependent on these services, which could potentially encourage higher fertility rates. In contrast, migrant mothers' fertility seems less constrained by the lack of childcare services, suggesting differences in how childcare access affects fertility across populations. This chapter highlights the underexplored impact of childcare services on fertility, providing fresh perspectives on fertility support mechanisms
The final chapter investigates the motherhood trajectories of Albanian migrant women in Italy. Based on 30 in-depth interviews, this chapter examines how social conditions, individual characteristics, and migratory experiences shape their experiences of motherhood. Employing a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative text analysis and qualitative thematic analysis, this chapter identifies key themes such as work-family balance, childcare strategies, and socio-economic challenges. The analysis reveals four distinct motherhood configurations, ranging from full-time caregiving to significant difficulties in balancing work and family life, largely due to structural constraints in the labour market. These findings highlight the complex interplay between cultural expectations, individual agency, and structural barriers that shape the motherhood experiences of migrant women in Italy.