Documentation paper: Survey on Fertility Plans and Attitudes among Pakistani University Students Preparing for Emigration

This paper provides a detailed description of the design and implementation of a survey on fertility plans and attitudes among Pakistani university students with a high likelihood of emigration. The survey is broadly representative of Pakistani students in higher education institutions (HEIs), subject to its focus on students nearing graduation and highly likely to emigrate to Western countries thereafter. This likelihood is measured through a set of short screening questions assessing respondents’ preparedness for emigration. The survey first examines fertility plans and general attitudes towards fertility and childbearing. Approximately half of the respondents were then randomly assigned to an information treatment presenting scientific findings on the fertility assimilation of immigrants from high-fertility countries to low-fertility countries. The survey subsequently explores the flexibility of respondents’ fertility plans, particularly in relation to their anticipated emigration. Finally, it investigates the economic and social factors that may influence this flexibility, together with the sources of information respondents are likely to consider when forming and revising their fertility decisions.