Ethnic fertility differentials among Yugoslavian-born immigrants in Sweden

Many immigrants to North America and Western Europe originate from countries where fertility patterns differ considerably between ethnic groups. Yet, earlier research on immigrant fertility in Western destination countries typically does not distinguish among immigrants’ origin at a finer level than country of birth, an approach that risks hiding variation between sub- and transnational ethnic groups. This study uses Swedish population register data on the so-called information language of newly arrived immigrants to distinguish between BCMS-speaking (Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian) and Albanian-speaking women immigrating to Sweden from the former Yugoslavia during 1992-2001. The study uses event-history analysis to compare parity-specific transition rates of about 29,000 Yugoslavian-born women and 2.4 million native-born women from 1992 to 2017. Results show that Albanian-speakers have higher first-, second-, and third-birth transition rates than both BCMS-speakers and native women. The transition rates of BCMS-speakers are considerably closer to those of natives. Results point to partial adaptation towards native fertility patterns by duration of stay within the G1 and between the G1 and G1.5 among both BCMS-speakers and Albanian-speakers. The study contributes to the understanding of fertility patterns among Yugoslavian migrants, which is one of the largest immigrant origin groups in several European destination countries. The study also makes a general contribution to research on immigrant fertility in demonstrating that distinguishing among immigrants from the same origin country by subnational ethnicity can uncover considerable within-group heterogeneity.