The Impact of the Great Recession on Natives’ and Migrants’ Fertility: A Comparison Between Italy and Sweden

Giammarco Alderotti , Sapienza University of Rome
Eleonora Mussino, Stockholm University
Chiara Ludovica Comolli, University of Lausanne

The aim of this study is to contribute to the research about the social consequences of the Great Recession in Italy and Sweden. The Great Recession affected fertility negatively, through increasing unemployment and insecurity in the labor markets (Goldstein et al., 2013), but this issue has scarcely been addressed focusing on migrants, who are more exposed to economic shocks due to their higher employment uncertainty (Sobotka et al., 2011). The comparison between Sweden and Italy is of particular interest, because of the large differences in their migration history, welfare states and the extent to which they were hit by the Great Recession. By looking at the association between individuals’ occupation and their fertility behavior before and after the economic crisis, this study will provide new insights to understand how labor market outcomes and fertility relate with one another among immigrant subpopulations, in different welfare states, in times of economic recession.

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 Presented in Session 8. Economy, Labor Force, Education, & Inequality