Abstract
Fertility patterns in Nigeria are high and widely skewed away from the targets of the country’s population policy. As population growth is fueled by natural increase and migration, and with spatial disparities in fertility preferences among the different ethnic groups in Nigeria, this study investigates the fertility behavior of ethnic migrants in their destinations, the place-effects on such behavior, and the convergence or otherwise of the behavior with fertility behaviors in the migrants’ places of origin and destination. Explanations for the behavioral pattern are provided in the hypotheses of migrant fertility and in the sociodemographic confounders of the behavior. Study data was extracted for the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria from the Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey. Median numbers of children ever born (CEB) were 7, 6, and 4 for the Hausa-Fulani, Igbo, and Yoruba ethnic groups respectively. Relative to the destination fertility patterns, Hausa-Fulani and Yoruba migrants had lower CEB in Igboland while Igbo and Yoruba migrants recorded lower CEB in the North-West home of the Hausa-Fulani ethnic group. Whereas the Igbo migrants maintained an equal CEB with their Yoruba hosts, the Hausa-Fulani group replicated their home fertility behavior in Yorubaland. Overall, the adaptation, socialization, and selectivity hypotheses were found valid for some of the disparities in migrant fertility behavior and the influence of the sociodemographic predictors of fertility behavior varied among the different ethnic groups.
Highlights
Nigeria is characterized by marked and well-documented disparity in levels of development and access to livelihood opportunities, social services, and basic infrastructures among its regions and political subdivisions, and between its urban and rural areas
4.4% of stayers had higher education compared with nearly 16% among migrants
More than 85% of Hausa-Fulani stayers had no formal education, 77.3% of Igbo stayers had either primary or secondary education, while the Yoruba ethnic group had the highest proportion of stayers with higher education (12.7%)
Summary
Nigeria is characterized by marked and well-documented disparity in levels of development and access to livelihood opportunities, social services, and basic infrastructures among its regions and political subdivisions, and between its urban and rural areas. Internal migration among the population has become a major strategy employed for addressing these deficiencies and for enhancing access to the livelihood opportunities. How well internal migration has worked as a livelihood diversification strategy, its nature and dynamics, and its consequences for social and economic development at individual, households, community, national, and regional levels have been the crux of several studies in Nigeria; Adepoju (1978 and 1982), Gugler (1991), Mberu (2005), Aworemi and Abdul-Azeez (2011), Oyeniyi (2020) 76:3. Much fewer and virtually non-existent are those on the association between internal migration and fertility behavior. While the two available studies, Makinwa-Adebusoye (1985) and Omoyeni (2013), investigated fertility differentials among migrants and non-migrants, nothing is known about the fertility behavior of migrants in their destination locations, the place-effects on such behavior, and the convergence or otherwise of the behavior with behaviors in the migrants’ places of origin and destination
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