Fertility and contraceptive use among migrant and non-migrant women in Iran

Shahla Kazemi-pour Sabet, Ministry of Science, Iran
Nader Motie-Haghshenas, Ministry of Science, Iran

Using a nationally representative sample of 90,000 married women aged 10-49 representing urban and rural areas of Iran, this study compares women who had entered their current place of residence within the five-year period preceding the survey with those who had lived there for a longer period on a number of reproductive behaviors and outcomes. The migrant group consisted of five subgroups: those coming from an urban or rural area outside the province; those coming from an urban or rural area within the province and those coming from abroad. All four sub-groups of internal migrants have lower fertility rates and higher rates of contraceptive prevalence than their non-migrant counterparts. These differences persist after controlling for age, duration of marriage and level of education. The small group of migrants from abroad (N=360) were predominantly from Afghanistan and had significantly higher fertility and lower contraceptive prevalence rates than both migrants and nonmigrants.