A comparison of post-immigration fertility of Chinese immigrants in the U.S. and Canada

• Main Author: Zhao, Jing
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2009
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/7706

Inspired by the issue that Chinese immigrants have higher Total Fertility Rates in the U.S. than their counterparts in Canada, my master’s thesis is trying to draw a general picture of the macro-contextual influences of the sending country and receiving country on immigrant fertility divergences in these two nations. Using data derived from the 5-percent Public Use Micro Data Sample (PUMS) from the 2000 US Census and the Ethnic Diversity Survey (EDS) from 2001 Canada Census, I compared the post-immigration fertility of immigrant women from China mainland and Hong Kong in the U.S. and Canada. Results indicate that these two groups of Chinese perform different fertility patterns in these two countries. Immigrant women from China mainland tend to have higher post-immigration fertility than those from Hong Kong. Drawing largely on the literature review of the interaction between immigration and fertility, some of these fertility differences could be accounted for by demographic, socioeconomic, and assimilation variables controlled at the individual level. However, looking at this deeply, I also argue that the reproductive behaviors of immigrants are structured by cultural norms and population policies in the sending country and influenced by immigration and integration policies in the receiving country.