Child mortality shows very different levels around the world. In 2007, under-five mortality in about 110 developing countries varied from 7‰ (in Thailand and Cuba) to about 260‰ (in Sierra Leone and Afghanistan). Children die, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, for largely preventable or treatable causes. The Millennium Development Goal n. 4 of the United Nations is to reduce the under-five mortality rate by two thirds from 1990 to 2015. Bearing in mind the widespread literature on this topic and collecting numerous available macro-data, this article aims to reach a double objective. Classical procedures of factor analysis and hierarchical classification analysis are used in order to describe the observed countries and to highlight different “patterns” of mortality with regard to their characteristics and trends. Moreover, multivariate analysis techniques are applied to estimate the main demographic and socio-economic determinants of each country’s chance of reaching MDG n. 4. These analyses would provide useful information for policy makers and indications for needed interventions.

Recent years are characterized by both a rise in life expectancy and a further fall in fertility in the developing countries (DCs). These processes coexist with large heterogeneity according to the specific living conditions of countries. The aim of our research is to analyze the trends of specific demographic parameters regarding mortality and fertility, jointly with some socio-economic characteristics of more than 100 DCs, to assess if convergence patterns in demographic behaviors prevail or if marked differences persist. As the paths of mortality and fertility in fact differ deeply over space and time, we need a specific statistical multi-way analysis technique that consider the time series dimension. Thus, we apply Dynamic Factor Analysis and Cluster Analysis of trajectories in order to evaluate at macro-level the main demographic trends of DCs in the 1995-2010 period. Results let us reconsider the processes of convergence and enlighten the heterogeneity among clusters.

Over the past decades, economic downturns have affected fertility dynamics in several countries in Asia and in Europe. The main purpose of this study is to perform a comparative analysis between South Korea and Italy on the effects of the economic crises, started respectively in 1997 and 2007, on the levels and patterns of fertility. A “tight family system” but very low fertility levels characterize both these two countries. The datasets used come from the 2006 Korean National Fertility, Family Health and Welfare Survey and from the 2012 Italian Multipurpose Survey on Aspects of Everyday Life. Our sample focuses on women aged 20-49 currently married at the time of the survey. We summarize the distinctive patterns in the socioeconomic characteristics of the observed groups of women in Italy and South Korea. We also apply regression analyses to assess the changing effect of economic status on fertility. Our findings confirm that the recession affected fertility significantly both in South Korea and in Italy. Changes in reproductive behavior have been most evident among women characterized by a high level of fertility and among those who received junior high school education or lower. As the level of wife’s education rises, the number of children ever born after the crisis tends to increase.

The aim of the paper is to study fertility of foreign women in Lombardy and its interrelation with their preceding migration to Italy. The results show a strong impact of age at the migration and heterogeneous behaviour by citizenship in the reproductive choice.

As a result of the growing presence of foreign immigrants settling in Italy, recent years have seen a significant increase in the number of mixed unions. However, little research has been carried out on the subject in this country, in part due to insufficient availability of suitable data. The aim of this study is to investigate the “market” of formal and informal mixed unions and to understand whether ethnic origin contributes a new element to the marriage/union market, and to verify the applicability of the “exchange theory” to the Italian context. We analyzed a particular segment of the marriage market - mixed parental couples included in the 2005 Sample Surveys of Births. The results showed a clear gender divide in the ethnic preferences of Italian spouses, a high rate of previous marital experience for both Italian and foreign people in mixed pairings, and a high frequency of unmarried and casual mixed relationships. Compared with endogamous couples, the foreign male or female spouse/partner in mixed couples is young and more educated relative to the Italian partner, but is less present in the work market and, when employed, often occupies a less well-qualified position. The “informal union market” works in very similar ways to the “marriage market”; the slight attenuation of relationships observed in the former being attributable to the lesser degree of security guaranteed by an unofficial union. Therefore, the mechanism of mate selection implies that foreigners’ appreciated qualities such as youth and high education may be offered in exchange for economic security, upward socio-economic mobility and access to the social network of the native partner: this is a variant of the exchange theory that was found to apply well to transnational marriages/unions in Italy.

The article seeks to assess the effect, in recent years, of immigration from abroad in counteracting the increasing aging of the Italian population. It does so by comparing the role played by immigration with that of fertility, the other demographic alternative. Firstly, this paper briefly reviews the main studies in the literature on the topic and illustrates the temporal and territorial references, the data used and the analytical tools applied. The article goes on to summarize the recent evolution of aging, reproductive behaviours, and immigration flows in Italy as a whole. Then, by means of analysis disaggregated at the provincial level, the article describes and schematizes the different patterns of behaviour characterizing the various areas of the country. Finally, by identifying the contribution made by each of the principal determinants of the variations in the mean age of the population, the article highlights the crucial influence of fertility on aging. The results show that, although immigration may sometimes be a useful solution, it is not enough to solve the problems connected with aging.

Using the Itagen2 panel survey (2006 and 2008), we study children of immigrants aged 10-16 in Italy by means of a dynamic and multidimensional approach aimed at understanding the determinants of levels and changes in four different aspects of assimilation. Results from the first wave underline a negative relation between the level of assimilation and age at immigration, and show considerable differences by country of origin. The second wave shows that assimilation increases mainly for children who arrived in Italy after their sixth birthday, i.e. those less assimilated in the first wave.

Background: The international literature highlights the strong impact of the high risk of childbearing shortly after migration on period fertility, thus establishing a link between reproductive behaviors and migratory transitions. Objective: The present study aims to analyze how migration affects motherhood and the role played by country of citizenship. Although most of the literature has focused on analyzing post-immigration fertility behaviors, in the present work we follow the women for their entire fertility period. Methods: The data were collected in the 2010 ORIM survey, conducted by the Region of Lombardy and the Ismu Foundation. The survey covered about 8,000 immigrants in Lombardy, of whom 3,848 were women, age 14 years and over, who came from Less Developed Countries or Central/Eastern Europe. Using Event History Analysis, we applied discrete-time logit models to study the transition into motherhood. Results: Moroccans are characterized by a strong interrelation effect between fertility and migration. The Moroccans and Albanians are the national groups with the highest risk of having the first child during the years shortly after migration. Among Romanians, migration does not seem to have any effect on fertility behaviors: They have a lower risk of having a child regardless of their migration status. Conclusions: The study confirms the importance of the interrelationship between migratory and reproductive behaviors. It also highlights the different effects by country of citizenship, where different citizenship is often associated with different migration patterns and distinct gender roles.

The transnational couples growth notably in Italy during the recent past. Bearing in mind the relevant literature, we aim at analysing the patterns of mate selection of such unions in comparison with homogamous ones. We also seek to verify if the exchange theory fit to the Italian context, examining some elements of heterogeneity between the partners (age and occupational differences). Lastly, we try to identify who “gains” and who “loses” in the union and how the distribution of “power” is defined. We perform descriptive and multivariate analysis mostly using individual data coming from the 2012 Births and Mothers Sample Survey. Main results show the presence of distinctive mate selection patterns of transnational couples, and that a “variant” of the exchange theory can be suitable the case of Italy. In fact, a “bargain” occurs between the partners, but it involves different aspects with respect to the ones quoted in the “classical” hypotheses. The foreign partner “offers” his/her relative youth, while the Italian one “counterbalances” with his/her “ethnic status”, and better occupational characteristics. This “bargaining” can produce a state of inferiority of the foreign partner, even if there is a risk that the latter has been adapted to solutions of convenience.

Recent years have seen a very marked increase in the number of transnational pairings in Italy. In this paper the authors describe the growing demographic trends concerning the transnational couples and their changing characteristics in terms of assortative mating, mainly using censuses and other official data, while survey micro data are used in order to highlight the mechanisms by which mixed couples are formed, their criteria of mate selection, and their family and fertility behaviour. The specificities of heterogamous unions that distinguish them from couples formed by partners of the same nationality (Italian and/or foreign) are examined with the help of multivariate analysis. The results show the existence of characteristics that are to be ascribed to the condition of ethnic heterogamy, net of other covariates, such as greater fragility and internal conflict, unconventional behavioural patterns, lower and later fertility. The knowledge obtained from the examination of these questions represents a useful glance in a particular path to integration of foreign communities in Italy and a useful basis for policy interventions in this sector.

The transnational couples growth notably in Italy during the recent past. The paper aims at analysing the patterns of mate selection of such unions in comparison with homogamous ones. Using the 2012 Birth and Mothers Sample Survey data, we analyse the elements of gender heterogeneity between the partners in order to verify if and to what extent the exchange theory fit to the Italian context. We consider in particular the following aspects: pre-union birth, age and occupational differences. According to the exchange theory, a type of “bargaining” occurs in couple formation between foreign and Italian partners; however different aspects emerge in the Italian context with respect to those of the “classical” hypotheses.

In questo volume si osservano i ragazzi stranieri e gli italiani ponendosi in un’ottica comparativa e immaginandoli come giovanissimi piloti impegnati in una competizione sportiva. Esaminando le loro possibilità di “giocarsela alla pari” nel raggiungimento dei traguardi individuati, si tenta di immaginare, seguendo un approccio quantitativo, il tipo e il livello di inserimento sociale che potranno sperimentare in età adulta. In tale prospettiva, si considera innanzitutto il “passato”, rappresentato dai contesti di provenienza degli intervistati, ossia dalla coppia genitoriale, dal nucleo familiare e dalle reti di aiuto. Il “presente” è descritto osservando le competenze linguistiche, il rendimento scolastico e le relazioni amicali. Infine, il “futuro” è ipotizzato analizzando le aspirazioni formative, gli obiettivi professionali e i progetti migratori. I molteplici aspetti esaminati mostrano l’esistenza di elementi di omogeneità ed eterogeneità tra i diversi gruppi di studenti. Inoltre, gli approfondimenti realizzati contribuiscono a sfatare molti pregiudizi che descrivono, spesso in base a una insufficiente conoscenza del fenomeno, i ragazzi stranieri come penalizzati e penalizzanti nell’ambito dei rispettivi contesti di insediamento. I risultati offrono, oltre a dettagliati elementi conoscitivi, indicazioni utili a quanti operano a contatto con le generazioni dalle quali dipende il futuro del nostro Paese.

Using two-wave panel data drawn from the Itagen2 Survey, we analyse the assimilation process of a sample of 11–13-year-old children of immigrants enrolled in Italian junior high schools, comparing them to children whose parents are both Italian. In seeking to adapt the traditional segmented assimilation theory to the Italian context, and using a dynamic and multidimensional approach, we consider four aspects: linguistic preferences, scholastic performance, friendship with peers, and sense of belonging in Italy. We synthesize a crude index of assimilation level, analyse its changes in a 2-year period and define its main determinants. The results demonstrate that generation status (place of birth of the children and of their parents, and length of stay) and the family’s socio-economic condition are closely related to assimilation level. These findings provide information useful for a better understanding of these children and their way of life.

High levels of child mortality in the developing countries led the United Nations to include a significant reduction of under-five mortality rates among the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to be reached before 2015. In particular, the target of MDG 4 is to reduce the under-five mortality rates in every developing country by two thirds with respect to the levels reached in 1990. This article contributes to the debate on whether the target of MDG 4 will be reached by 2015; it also offers policy recommendations. We observe 110 countries defined by United Nations as “less” or “least” developed. The time-series-macro data used in the study come mainly from the United Nations “MDGInfo” database. Additional data come from WHO, UNICEF, UNDP and World Bank databases. The availability of a large amount of comparable data at the national level makes the quantitative cross-country approach particularly suitable for describing and comparing the intensity and main features of child mortality in different regions and countries. In our article, we: 1) provide an overview of the general context of developing countries; 2) analyze (using principal component analysis and cluster analysis) aspects of child mortality to highlight its different patterns and group together the considered countries in homogeneous clusters; 3) apply and update a methodology used by international agencies to monitor the outcomes obtained by each country in the reduction of child mortality and to estimate the chance each country has to reach MDG 4 (taking into account the trends shown since 1990); and 4) utilize linear regression models to identify the main social and economic determinants of the gaps that exist for each country in 2010 between the observed under-five mortality rates levels and those required to achieve the target. Our study shows that in 50 of 110 countries, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, the average annual rate of reduction in under-five mortality rates observed so far will not be sufficient to meet MDG 4.