|
In 1996, there were 67,875 women of Asian ethnicities aged 15 years and over, the vast majority of whom were born overseas (table 27). The women born overseas have been in New Zealand for widely varying lengths of time, so that for some women fertility depends on that of the source country almost entirely, while for others fertility will reflect their new environment.
For some of the larger categories such as ‘Indian’, which comprise a wide range of ethnicities, the diversity within the group is quite large. While women who gave an Indian ethnicity as one of their ethnicities had on average given birth to 2.15 children (age adjusted), this varied with birthplace to a marked degree. For women who stated their ethnicity as Fijian Indian the figure was 2.49 children per woman, compared with a figure of 2.43 for all women of Indian ethnicities born in Fiji. This contrasts with 1.89 children per woman for those born in New Zealand and 2.07 for those born elsewhere (predominantly born in India).
Table 27: Average number of children, for women of selected Asian ethnicities (total responses) by birthplace
Click to view table
The scope of Asian ethnicities used here is that used in the standard classification of ethnicity, which is based largely on geographic and economic boundaries. This includes Afghanistan but not Iran. Nor does it include any Central Asian Turkic ethnicities, which have been have been coded to general Middle Eastern categories. This has an effect on how far we can interpret the data on people with ethnicities associated with Central Asia, although the Central Asian population in New Zealand is still fairly small.
This boundary choice, from an ethnographic viewpoint, tends to affect the apparent patterns if we treat Asia as a unit under this definition. There is a marked relationship between the number of children a woman may have and the geographic region associated with her ethnicity. Grouping ethnicities into logical geocultural units8 reveals that the age adjusted average number of children born per woman is highest for women of Central Asian ethnicities at 2.30, followed by South Asian at 2.14. Women of Southeast Asian ethnicities have a generally lower fertility at 1.89 children but not as low as women of East Asian ethnicities who have, on average, 1.78 children per woman. One of the factors currently producing a higher value for women from Southeast Asia than those from East Asia is the relatively high fertility of women from Cambodia, Viet Nam and Laos, countries which have recently suffered devastating population losses and extreme social dislocation. These circumstances generally invoke a fairly short period of high fertility (Desbarats, 1998; Heuveline, 1999) which also extends into the diasporas by continuing association with the source area and further immigration of young adult populations. An interesting aspect of this data is that it accords closely with the differences in female education and the relative degree to which a society is patriarchal or matriarchal, with the highest rates being found among groups with stronger patriarchal traditions.
Asian women in New Zealand have a strong correlation between number of children and marital status. At least in part this is related to the proportion of these women who are still studying, with those who are not legally married having significantly fewer children than is the norm for the New Zealand population as a whole. However, this also reflects immigration practices, since a number of Asian women have moved to New Zealand with their husbands as part of a migrating family and others have been able to settle in this country by marrying a New Zealand citizen. It is less common for single women with children to have settled in New Zealand unless they were sponsored by other family members.
One of the striking features we see among Asian women (table 28) is the relationship between fertility outcomes and multiple ethnicity. Women of only Asian ethnicities generally have a lower average number of children than their peers of both Asian and European ethnicities. The latter group has on average one child more. This is a larger, though similar, effect than that seen in the pattern for Pacific women who also have Māori ethnicity (table 23). The underlying causes may relate to the sociology of intermarriage, though part of the reason probably lies in the youthful age structure of the Asian population.
Table 28: Average number of children for Asian women, by ethnicity and area type
Click to view table
Marital status is a strong factor among Asian women with respect to their fertility, as table 29 indicates. Asian mothers were more likely than other mothers to report that they were legally married – though it is not possible to tell from the data how many of these mothers interpreted this question as referring to religiously solemnised partnerships as well as civil registered marriages. Many people use the terms ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ to cover their situation irrespective of the strict legal definition of these terms. The very low proportion of ‘other partnerships’ recorded in the data suggests that this group interpreted the marital status question relatively more loosely than other groups may have done. As noted above, though, other factors such as immigration will have influenced this pattern to some extent.
Table 29: Average number of children for Asian women, by ethnicity, marital status and area type
Click to view table
There may well also be other short-term processes at work. For example, many of the women who are of only Asian ethnicities are students studying long-term in New Zealand (most of whom are without children). Women of Asian and at least one other ethnicity are more likely to have been in New Zealand for longer or have been born here. While over 45 percent of overseas-born women of only Asian ethnicities had been in New Zealand for less than five years, over 45 percent of those of both Asian and non-Asian ethnicities had been in the country for 15 years or longer.
Student migration may also partly explain the urban/rural differentials, which for Asian women is not as marked as for women of other ethnicities. Table 30 shows the degree to which full-time study affects this data. Women who were in full-time study (including women who said they were in both full-time and part-time) tended on average to have had significantly fewer children and many more had had no children. This difference was marked across all area types but the effect was, as expected, strongest in areas where there were major tertiary institutions.
It should be noted that people studying in full-time courses or both full-time and part-time courses include not only those women who are young and have not yet started having children, but also women who have returned to education and may have had children already. Moreover it is common for Asian women permanently resident in New Zealand, as with other women, to drop out of education when they are married and/or start having children, thus reinforcing this pattern.
Educational achievement is closely related to the number of children born to Asian women, as it is for all other women. Generally, the higher the level of completed qualifications held by a woman, the fewer children she is likely to have given birth to. Women who said they had a religious affiliation tend to both be married and have had more children than the generally younger group who stated that they did not have a religion (table 31). However, the data is affected by the student effect discussed above, so that all that can be concluded is that for Asian women religion may have a smaller effect than that noted for Pacific women, but not as small an effect as for other women. What is certain is that the key drivers are the same as those that result in higher educational outcomes – primarily this relates to involvement in formal education, but extends also to the social networks and influences this entails.
Table 30: Average number of children for Asian women, by ethnicity, studying status and area type
Click to view table
For the relatively small number of married Asian women who are also of other ethnicities, stating a religious affiliation appears to be more strongly related to marital status than for other Asian women. This is a characteristic not observed among other women, including Pacific women. The reasons may be complex and transitional, relating to immigration histories and the characteristics of their partners. In contrast to those of only Asian ethnicity, this group of women is equally likely to have been born in New Zealand or born overseas. They generally have non-Asian spouses who were born in New Zealand. The New Zealand-born women were predominantly of Chinese or Indian ethnicities, whereas the overseas-born also included a number of Filipino women as well as small numbers of other Southeast Asian ethnicities. Moreover, even though those with qualifications tend to have fewer children than those without, the differential is not generally large, related perhaps to one in four of the women having partners of lower educational level than themselves.
While Asian women of multiple ethnicities currently form a small group relative to the population of all Asian women in New Zealand, it is an important group, providing an insight into some aspects of the outcome of social interaction between local populations and new migrant groups. It should be remembered that Pacific women underwent a similar transitional phase in the recent past with consequences for that group’s fertility. Comparison of the two populations may shed further light on the processes involved, though this is not attempted here. Further research into settlement issues and long-term outcomes for the families would provide substantial insight how communities in contact modify each other’s expectations. How we interpret this affects directly the assumptions we make about future demographic change.
Table 31: Average number of children for Asian women, by ethnicity, marital status, religious status and highest qualification
Click to view table
Footnote
Back to Table of contents
|