
Annika Elwert
Associate senior lecturer

Fertility patterns and sex composition preferences in immigrant–native unions in Sweden
Author
Summary, in English
Intermarriage between immigrants and native individuals highlights the need to study childbearing as a joint decision of couples, because fertility preferences are likely to differ for the two partners involved. This study focuses on Sweden, where the majority population holds a relative preference for daughters but many immigrants come from countries with son preferences. Using longitudinal registers for the period 1990–2009, I analyse third-birth risks according to the sex composition of previous children and type of union. Doing so allows the study of preferences from behavioural data: couples with a daughter preference, for example, are more likely to have another child if their two previous children were boys. Results show that third-birth risks tend to be higher in unions between Swedish women and immigrant men, whereas unions between Swedish men and immigrant women tend to exhibit lower third-birth risks. Son preferences are rarely realized in intermarriages.
Department/s
- Department of Economic History
- Department of Sociology
- Economic demography
Publishing year
2024
Language
English
Pages
289-304
Publication/Series
Population Studies
Volume
78
Issue
2
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Routledge
Topic
- Sociology (excluding Social Work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology)
Keywords
- exogamy
- fertility preferences
- immigrant fertility
- immigrants
- intermarriage
- reproductive behaviour
- sex composition preferences
- Sweden
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0032-4728