Migrant Fertility Adjustment and Urban Growth in Latin America

Policy-makers and scholars alike have expressed concern over the high rates of urban concentration or metropolization of the Latin American population in recent decades. Causation of a substantial, though variable proportion of this phenomenon is attributable to urbanwards migrations from smaller centers and rural areas. The purpose of the present paper is to examine two interrelated sub-questions generated by the massive movement of people into large metropolitan areas of Latin America. First, we will be concerned with investigating fertility differentials between natives and different groups of migrants as an exercise in the study of the adjustment of migrant behaviour to life in larger cities. Secondly, we will concentrate on ascertaining the direct and indirect contribution made by migrants to metropolitan city growth in selected Latin American cities.