Parental influence on fertility behavior of first generation Turkish immigrants in Germany.

This study examines parental influence on the fertility behavior of Turkish women who have migrated to Germany. Using first-hand data collected from 82 migrants, it shows how the frequency of births that women have correlates with those of their mothers. Results suggest that while migrant women overall have fewer children than their mothers, there is a differing degree of parental influence on those women's fertility according to when they migrated. For women who moved to Germany before they became reproductively active, parental influence is perceptible; they are likely to have higher fertility than other members of their cohort if their mothers also had relatively high fertility. However, such a pattern does not appear to be the case for women who moved to Germany after they became reproductively active in Turkey. These results are interpreted with regard to the familial characteristics associated with both of these subgroups of Turkish women.