policymakers demonstrate

124 Christian Dustmann, Giovanni Facchini and Cora Signorotto
in fertility once they are in the destination country, but she finds evidence of a
long-term effect of the initial shock.
In Europe, Andersson (2004) uses Swedish longitudinal register data and
finds evidence of a before-migration disruption in fertility, which is followed by
a right-after-migration catchup. Toulemon (2004) and Toulemon et al. (2008)
also find evidence of disruption patterns in fertility for immigrants to France.
Different results emerge instead in a study carried out by Garssen and Nicolaas
(2008) on migrants to the Netherlands. Using information from Dutch municipal
population registries for 2005, they find that Turkish and Moroccan women
display higher fertility rates than those reported in their country of origin, and
argue that migration for family formation reasons might explain this trend.
Female migration from Turkey and Morocco, in fact, is mainly motivated by
family reunification, given the traditional role of women in these source countries.
Similar results are obtained also by Mayer and Riphahn (2000) in their
analysis of assimilation and/or disruption patterns in the fertility of immigrants
to Germany.
Open Issues
Data limitations is one of the main difficulties researchers face when studying
immigrant fertility. In particular, detailed information on immigrants’ lifetime
events such as age at migration, complete birth histories (i.e., before and after
migration), return migration and the socio-demographic characteristics of their
families of origin would allow for a more comprehensive analysis of migrants’
demographic trends.
Overall, and despite current limitations in fertility estimates and projections,
the evidence we have reviewed suggests that migrants tend to assimilate to the
destination country’s fertility patterns. Immigrants’ younger age and initially
higher fertility rates may help rejuvenate the host countries’ populations in the
short run. However, migrants’ assimilation to the host country fertility patterns
implies that such rejuvenation will largely have to rely on a continuous inflow
of immigrants. Therefore, migration alone is unlikely to compensate for the
ageing workforces in European countries.
3.4 Permanent versus Temporary Migration
To fully understand the demographic and fiscal impact of immigration on the
host countries, we must consider whether migrations are permanent or temporary,
and more generally what their durations are. If immigration is predominantly
permanent, older migrants will contribute to the ageing of the host country
population in the longer run, and to an increase in the demand for health
and long-term care services. If, however, most migrations are temporary, immigrants
may contribute to rejuvenating the existing workforce and contribute in