Migration and fertility in Kinshasa (DRC): evaluation and explanatory factors

Jean-Pierre Zamwangana Tungu, Université Catholique de Louvain

This study examines the effect of female migration on the fertility behaviour in Kinshasa, the capital city of DR Congo. Data used are from our Kinshasa Migration and Demographic Behavior's Survey conducted in 2002 with a representative sample of 2,068 married women of reproductive ages, under the support of The Welcome Trust. We compared fertility behaviour of recent, settled, and returned migrants to that of non-migrants of comparable conditions using Poisson regression method. We found that migrants tend to have similar fertility patterns than their non-migrant counterparts. The analysis based upon field data and our studied area knowledge points to several factors underlying that convergence. Our research does not support hypothesis that migrant populations contribute so much to the fairly high level of Kinshasa's fertility. Conversely, it suggests that they have played a major role in the recent onset of fertility transition in Kinshasa.