Fertility and migration in Guyana [article]

Everton W Pollard, University, The Australian National, University, The Australian National
2017
This study investigates migrant and non-migrant fertility differences and the relationship between migration and fertility in Guyana. Some attempts are also made to verify the relevance or applicability of the major models seeking to explain the migration-fertility relationship. In this study, fertility was found to be negatively associated with the degree of urbanization. Even the fertility of migrants was found to be negatively related to the degree of urbanization at both places of origin
more » ... destination. The degree of urbanization at destination areas, however, appeared to have the greater influence. In this regard, also, the influence of urban areas, particularly Georgetown, in depressing migrant fertility, was particularly evident. In view of the firmly established negative relationship between the fertility of migrants and urbanization at destination areas, there was relatively strong support for the "selectivity" hypothesis. There was also some suggestion that migrants may have selected destination areas in which the levels of fertility were similar to their own preferences. Greater validity was given to this supposition by the observation that compared with non-migrants in each residential category, the fertility of migrants originating therefrom was lower or higher, depending on whether there were greater levels of urbanization at particular destination areas, compared to origins. Although these findings could have been interpreted to suggest that migrants were adapting to fertility norms at destination, further analysis indicated that this was not necessarily the case. Some support was also found for the "adaptation" and "disruption" hypothesis. In the case of the Georgetown destination area, there was some suggestion of adaptation of migrant to non-migrant fertility. The findings also suggest some disruptions to migrant fertility in Georgetown. In the case of Other Urban and Rural destination areas, adaptation of migrant to non-migrant fertility was less evident. In the analysis of migration streams, [...]
doi:10.25911/5d6f9e79edfa0 fatcat:z3unrirghbhvrc6beqq65zaqua