Abstract
The effects of migration on fertility in Ecuador were analyzed by subdividing migrant categories into permanent-, return-, circular-, and non-migrants, and context factors into 6 socioeconomic and agrarian variables. The study is introduced with a conceptual framework that explains personal intermediate variables and their influence on fertility in terms of demographic transition theory, and then defines the influences of selection for fertility, disruption of marital unions, and socialization into fertility norms at the origin vs. assimilation of norms at the destination. Migrants are usually better educated, younger and upwardly mobile, all selecting for lower fertility. Migration disrupts formation of marital unions, and causes separation of spouses, lowering fertility. Data for this study were from the 1974 and 1982 Ecuadorian Population Censuses. The contextual variables analyzed were urban/rural; manufacturing/agricultural; mineral extraction/economic recession; long/recent agricultural settlement; domestic/export crop; and large/medium sized farm. The analysis of personal attributes showed that fertility increased over the range on non-migrants through circular-, return- to permanent-migrants, a finding explained by degrees of disruption of unions. Higher fertility was associated with less education, lower economic participation, higher prevalence of marriage, longer residence and older ages. Regression analysis also showed that personal attributes outweighed contextual factors: thus age, marriage rates, residence time, education and economic activity were significant. Contextual factors were important only for non-migrants, except for destination variables which affected return-migrants and origin variables which affected circular-migrants. Low fertility was associated with urbanization, industrialization, mineral extraction, large farms, recent farm settlement and export crops. The results indicate cear influences of modernity and place influences on fertility of migrants.
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