Fertility by Birth Order among the Descendants of Immigrants in Selected European Countries

Abstract

EUROPEAN POPULATIONS are characterized by an increasing share of immigrants and their descendants In the second half of the twentieth century, most immigrants arrived in Northern and Western European countries, whereas in the first decade of this century Southern European countries experienced a rapid increase of the immigrant population Central and Eastern European countries with state socialist regimes and planned economies showed specific migration patterns during the post-World War II period; some countries contributed to intra-European labor migration, others experienced emigration of political refugees. The East-West migration streams significantly increased after the fall of Communism, and some Eastern European countries have experienced large emigration streams also in the first decades of the twenty-first century Over time, the share of the descendants of postwar immigrants has also increased (we also refer to them as ethnic minorities or the second generation). In many Northern and Western European countries, immigrants and their descendants form approximately onefifth to one-fourth of the population (OECD 2014; Immigrants and their descendants thus increasingly shape demographic, social, and cultural trends in European societies.