Fertility differentials among migrants and non-migrants in the Philippines
Date
1989
Authors
Bacal, Ro-Ann A.
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Abstract
The main purpose of this study is to ascertain the
extent to which the fertility of migrant women in the
Philippines is different from that of non-migrants. The 1983
National Demographic Survey (NDS) was the source of data for
attaining the objectives of this study and ascertaining: (1)
the profile of migrants at the time of first move; (2) the
characteristics of migrants and non-migrants at the time of
survey; (3) differences in cumulative and current fertility
behaviour according to migration status; (4) differences in
average pregnancy intervals of migrants before and after
their latest move with those of non-migrants; and (5) whether
differences in the fertility pattern among the sampled
currently married women was due to the moves they have made
or some other explanatory variables. The primary
investigation included the use of crosstabulations,
standardizations, and multivariate analysis (specifically,
multiple classification analysis).
Relatively minor support was accorded to the conceptual
framework put forward by the study which was based on
traditional concepts rationalizing the interrelationship
between fertility and migration. The general pattern that
emerged from the tables on cumulative fertility of migrants
and non-migrants points to very little variation in the mean
number of children ever born in younger ages but some
distinct differences in older ages, even after controlling for education, labour force participation and contraceptive
use status. The findings on current fertility, as
demonstrated by the age-specific marital fertility rates,
point to lower fertility among migrants whose place of
destination was urban and higher fertility among those whose
place of destination was rural. But again, the differences
are not pronounced. When contrasting the pregnancy intervals
of migrants after their latest move with the average
pregnancy intervals of non-migrants, the findings illustrate
the propensity of the latter to have longer pregnancy
intervals. The resulting figures, however, reveal only
slight differences between the two. This, more or less,
concurs with the findings from the analysis of cumulative and
current fertility. Finally, results of the multiple
classification analysis indicate that migration had a
negligible contribution to explaining the variations in
cumulative fertility compared to the other socio-economic and
demographic variables included in the model.
One possible conclusion is that migration does not in
itself raise fertility rates by bringing high fertility women
in urban areas. However, because migration is age selective
and contributes to inflating the age groups in the peak
reproductive years, it has the potential to raise the number
of births in cities and contribute to the natural increase in
urban growth. Hence, it may be worthwhile considering the
strategy of using the country's population redistribution
policy as a mechanism for fertility reduction.
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