Forced migration in childhood and subsequent fertility: The Karelian displaced population in Finland

• Published in: Population, Space and Place
• Main Authors: Saarela, Jan, Skirbekk, Vegard
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2018
• Subjects: karelia*; karelian
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/psp.2223; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fpsp.2223; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/psp.2223; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/psp.2223

Abstract The family formation consequences of refugee movements is of relevance to international demographic development and for countries accepting forced migrants. Finland provides a unique opportunity to understand the long term effects of involuntary migration on subsequent family formation patterns using population register data. We study individuals who were aged up to 17 years when they were forced to migrate from Finnish Karelia, following the Soviet annexation in the 1940s. There was no migrant selectivity that could affect fertility, and no one had the opportunity to eventually return migrate. For displaced women, but not displaced men, we find that the experience of forced migration in childhood lead to a slightly lower risk of finding a partner, whereas the influence on fertility was small and slightly positive only for men. Forced migrants were more likely to partner with other forced migrants, but we find no robust evidence that partnering behaviour of this kind promotes fertility.