A migração internacional e o comportamento reprodutivo das mulheres cubanas: as singularidades da transição demográfica em Cuba e seu impacto na fecundidade das migrantes

Abstract

This study examines the fertility of Cuban residents in the United States from 2005 to 2009 in regards to the level and structure of current fertility. This fertility is compared to that of American women, foreign women, and women living in Cuba. This indicator is assessed by sorting the population according towhether or not they reside in Florida, as that State has the largest concentration of Cubans in the United States while identifying certain identity and cultural assimilation. Three variables were measured when considering theories that would explain the reproductive behaviour and fertility of Cuban women after migrating to the United States: time spent as residents, adaptation to the environment via the spoken language, and the stage of their life cycle during which they entered the country. The American Community Survey (U.S.) was used as a primary source. The results indicate that the fertility rate of Cuban women in the United States is the largest in terms of level and less intense in ages young and old in terms of structure compared to the fertility of women in Cuba. The fertility rate of Cuban women is also closer to that of American women than tothat of other foreign women. Similarly, Cuban residents in the United States (Florida or other states) seem to be impacting on the level but not in the structure of fertility. According to the attitudes and expectations about motherhood and migration in Cuba, there are indications that the reproductive strategy of the women who immigrate to the United States are delaying fertility, which could be an effect of time without significantly altering the quantum of fertility, element that could be studied in futures works.