Fertility Outcomes among Temporary Mexican Migrants to the United States

Maria J. Perez-Patron, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

The present study will look at the relationship between temporary U.S. migration experience and fertility by comparing completed fertility as well as age-specific fertility patterns of Mexicans with and without U.S. migration experience. This research is conducted from a life-course perspective. Life-course considerations such as union formation or childbearing are critical to understanding and individual’s decision to migrate. The data used will be the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS). The MHAS is a study on health and aging conducted in Mexico in 2001. The baseline survey is a national representative sample of Mexicans 50 years and over at the time of the survey. The statistical analyses will include logistic and poisson regression models. Temporary migrants to the U.S. are expected to have fewer children than non-migrants due to the disruptive effect of international migration. The disruptive effect is expected to be larger for women than for men.