Fertility patterns and sex composition preferences in immigrant–native unions in Sweden

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.

• Author: Annika Elwert
• Department/s: Department of Economic History; Department of Sociology; Economic demography
• Publishing year: 2023
• Language: English
• Publication/Series: Population Studies
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00324728.2023.2211045
• 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: Inpress
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 0032-4728