Migrant Remittances and Fertility

Abstract

This study examines the role of migrants’ remittances in developing countries’ fertility transition. Employing an unbalanced panel of South Asian countries and controlling for various economic and socio-demographic factors, we find that remittances are significantly associated with lower number of children born to women of childbearing age. This suggests the remittances’ substitution effect to be at play rather than the income effect, and may result from decreased need for children for financing the household’s future needs as well as from better access to healthcare and contraceptive methods available to migrant households. Remittances’ association with fertility appears to be more important than the transfer of fertility norms from migrants’ host countries’. The monetary aspects of international migration may therefore be more important for the region’s demographic transition than social remittances.

Keywords: Fertility, TFR, Demography, Migrant remittances, South Asia

JEL Classification: F22, F24, J13, N35