Age at Migration, Language and Fertility Patterns among Migrants to Canada

This paper explores the fertility patterns of immigrant children to Canada using the 20 percent sample of the Canadian Census from 1991 through 2006. Fertility increases with age at immigration, with a sharp rise for those immigrating in their late teens and this pattern is similar for all countries of origin. Proficiency in official languages does not seem a key mechanism through which age at immigration affects fertility – fertility of immigrants with an official mother tongue also differs from that of natives. Formal education, however, matters as college graduates who arrived to Canada at any age before adulthood show similar fertility patterns as their native peers, whereas fertility of those who did not reach tertiary education rises with age at migration.