Fertility patterns of selected Australian immigrant groups, 1977-1991

Australia has been a leading migrant-receiving country, and since 1973 all Australian governments have formally accepted that Australia is a multicultural society. In 1991, immigrants accounted for more than 22 per cent of the total population of Australia. The main aims of this study are to investigate the patterns and levels of fertility among various immigrant groups in Australia; to compare them with those for countries of origin, second generations, and the Australia-born population over the period 19771991; and to analyse the observed patterns of fertility in terms of competing theories of the relationship between migration and fertility: the selectivity, disruption, adaptation, minority-status, 'cultural maintenance' and 'local constraint' hypotheses. The fertility of the first generation is analysed for 21 individual birthplace groups and nine regional grouping of countries; then attention is focused on six selected birthplace groups: Greeks, Italians, Lebanese, Poles, Dutch and the British-Irish, the fertility of which is analysed in terms of their ages at arrival in Australia, and generation. The 1991 Census is the main source of data. The own-children method is used to estimate fertility measures for the different immigrant groups during the periods 1977-81, 1982-86 and 1987-91. There were marked variations in total fertility rates among migrant women during all three periods. Lebanon-born women were the most fertile group, while Chinese had the lowest total fertility rates. A downward trend is visible in the levels of fertility of most birthplace groups across the periods. By 1987-91, the fertility of most immigrant groups had converged to, or fallen below, that of the host society. Most migrants from nonEnglish-speaking Asian countries, such as those from Turkey, India and Sri Lanka, China, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, and also the Egypt-born, displayed considerably lower fertility in Australia during the period 1977-91 than did the populations in their home countries. Migrant women from Lebanon, Greece, Germany, the United Kingdom and Ireland, and Hong Kong were among those who recorded very similar total fertility rates to the populations in their home countries. Early marriage patterns were found for migrant groups such as Lebanese and Turks at the 1981 and 1991 Censuses. Those from Hong Kong, Malaysia, China and New Zealand had delayed marriage patterns. Women from the United Kingdom and Ireland, the Netherlands and Germany had more or less similar marriage patterns to native-born women at both censuses. Of the selected birthplace groups, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands had similar socio-demographic and economic characteristics to the national average, while Greeks, Italians and particularly Lebanese were dissimilar to the national population. The BritishIrish, Dutch and Poles are characterised by later marriage, relatively high levels of marital instability, above average rates of cohabitation, high proportions of births who were ex-nuptial and high incidences of intermarriage; Greeks, Italians and Lebanese, on the other hand, exhibit early marriage, low levels of marriage dissolution, low rates of cohabitation, low proportions of ex-nuptial births, and low levels of intermarriage. The adaptation hypothesis is found to be strongly supported for the Lebanese. The fertility of second-generation Lebanese is considerably lower than that of the first generation. Lebanese migrants who came to Australia as children have a similar fertility pattern to the second generation. The United Kingdom and Ireland-born converge to the pattern of native-born women by displaying slightly higher fertility in the second