Transition to third birth among immigrant mothers in Sweden: Does having two daughters accelerate the process?

In this study, we investigate whether immigrant parents hold sex preferences for children in Sweden, a country that promotes gender equality and where parental preference for having a girl prevails. By applying event-history models to Swedish register data, we investigate the transition to third birth by the sex composition of children born among immigrants. In particular, we examine whether women who come from countries with strong son-preference cultures accelerate their process of having a third child if their prior children are both girls. We pay particular attention to immigrants from China, Korea, India and the former Yugoslavia, where son preference culture has been well documented in the literature. Our results show that women from China, Korea, India and the former Yugoslavia are more likely to have a third child if they have two girls than if they have two boys or a boy and a girl. Interestingly, mothers from China, Korea and India tends to accelerate their process to get a son, whereas mothers from the former Yugoslavia do not hasten. Furthermore, the 1.5 generation and the immigrant mothers with a Swedish partner from China, Korea and India demonstrate a girl preference, as the native Swedes do, whereas the 1.5 generation immigrant mothers from the former Yugoslavia do not show any sign of adaptation.