The association between education and entry into parenthood across origin groups and migrant generations in Belgium: A model-based synthetic life table approach

Educational gradients in both the timing of parenthood and the proportion of women having a first child have been well-documented in the literature. It remains unclear, however, to what extent educational gradients in fertility in the general population mask variation in the education-parenthood nexus between population subgroups, particularly those with a migration background. Applying discrete-time hazard models to population-wide register data for Belgium in the 1990–2010 period, this descriptive study compares the association between educational attainment and entry into parenthood between native Belgian women, women who moved to the country before age 18 (1.5 generation) and descendants of migrants who were born in Belgium (second generation). We find that first births are consistently postponed to older ages with increasing levels of education in all groups, with timing differentials being more articulated for several origin groups compared to natives. With respect to the proportion of women having a first child, we find that the negative educational gradient has disappeared among native women, whereas substantial negative gradients emerge in Southern European, Eastern European, Turkish and Maghrebi origin groups. Finally, we find that educational gradients in the second generation with respect to both the timing of parenthood and the proportion of women having a first child are more similar to the gradients found among native women than is the case for women of the 1.5 generation. This paper contributes to the larger body of research on factors that shape unfolding life courses in populations with a migration background, with the aim of enhancing our understanding of the potential implications of such increasing diversity on fertility trends.