The Modern Migrant Mother: Internal Migration, Stalled Fertility, and Proximate Determinants in Benin

Christopher S. Inkpen, Pennsylvania State University

The relationship between migration and development, traditionally examined from an economic perspective, has important implications for national fertility and individual reproductive outcomes. The recent feminization of migration streams in sub-Saharan Africa heighten the potential for migration to impact fertility in countries with stalled fertility transitions. Using data from the 2006 Demographic Health Survey of Benin, this study applies the Bongaarts proximate determinants of fertility framework to internal migrants and non-migrants to explore the mechanisms through which migration impacts fertility. Comparing proportions of respondents in unions, contraceptive use, abortion, and postpartum amenorrhea, this inquiry suggests that internal migrants and non-migrants differ substantially in total fecundability as well as their use of postpartum amenorrhea and abortion.