Migration and Fertility: Haitian Immigrants Residing in the Dominican Republic

Nicole Aponte Cueto, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)
Adriana Miranda-Ribeiro, Federal University of Minas Gerais (Centro de Desenvolvimento e Planejamento Regional))

The theories of socialization, adaptation, disruption, and selectivity provide a theoretical framework connecting fertility and migration, allowing to understand migrants’ reproductive behaviours. These theories consider factors such as the age at arrival in the host country, conditions experienced in the country of origin, and various social, demographic, and economic characteristics, also addressed by the life-course perspective. This research seeks to contribute empirical evidence on the South-South migration of women and their reproductive behaviour, specifically of Haitians residing in the Dominican Republic. We aim to assess whether immigrants’ fertility behaviour aligns with theories of adaptation and disruption, and how life trajectories influence their reproductive behaviour. Using the birth history reconstruction technique, we will reconstruct births from 1996 to 2010, adopting a longitudinal approach and applying the life-course perspective. The 2010 Census of the Dominican Republic will serve as the data source. We expect to find that the fertility patterns of Haitian and Dominican women become increasingly similar with longer residence in the country and to identify evidence supporting the disruption and adaptation theories.

Keywords: International Migration, Census data, Longitudinal studies

See extended abstract.