Three out of ten births in Norway last year to immigrant mothers
Three out of ten children born in 2018 had an immigrant as a mother, although numbers distinguishing birth rates of immigrant and ethnic Norwegian women are increasingly smaller.
29% of the 55,000 children born in Norway last year had immigrant mothers wrote Dagens Næringsliv newspaper and referred to figures from Statistics Norway (SSB). This is despite the fact that immigrant women had a birth rate of 1.87 per woman, compared with 1.56 in the ethnic Norwegian female population.
‘’It is surprising that such a large proportion of the children were born to immigrant women, because the difference between the fertility of women with and without an immigrant background is lower than in a long time’’ said senior researcher, Astri Syse of SSB.
Syse said that one of the reasons why the proportion of children born to immigrant women has increased is that there are many immigrant women who are of fertile age.
Statistics Norway defines an immigrant as a person born outside Norway but who later moved here. Fremskrittsparti’s (Frp’s) immigration policy spokesperson, Jon Helgheim, said the development is negative.
‘’Both because Norwegians give birth to fewer children and because child poverty among immigrant families is increasing. In order to maintain the population base, ethnic Norwegians should give birth to more children’’ he said.
He didn’t comment on Frp’s no doubt highly exciting plans to reduce child poverty among immigrant families in Norway.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
