Navigating New Socio-Demographic Landscapes: Using Anthropological Demography to Understand the 'Persistence' of High and Early Fertility Among British Pakistanis
Navigating New Socio-Demographic Landscapes: Using Anthropological Demography to Understand the 'Persistence' of High and Early Fertility Among British Pakistanis
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DOI：
10.1007/s10680-011-9252-z
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发表时间：
2012-02-01
影响因子：
2.5
通讯作者：
Simpson, Bob
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hampshire, Kate;Blell, Mwenza;Simpson, Bob
尽管最近英籍巴基斯坦女性的教育和就业机会有所增加，但英籍巴基斯坦人的生育率仍然比英国其他民族更早、更高。在这篇文章中，我们介绍了一项基于采访的研究结果，该研究对英格兰东北部91名英籍巴基斯坦女性和男性进行了采访，以揭示这种明显的人口统计异常背后的生育选择和限制因素。根据详细的生殖叙述，我们表明，与文献中的常见假设相反，相对较高的早期生育率并不一定意味着被动地接受“文化规范”或不愿参与新的社会和经济机会。至少对一些年轻女性来说，早产代表着一种深思熟虑和战略性的选择：一种管理不同的家庭建设和其他愿望的方式，嵌入到个人、夫妇和更广泛的家庭之间复杂的相互作用中。这项研究有助于人类学人口学的新兴“交叉学科”，它为人口过程提供了两个学科都不能单独完成的重要洞察。
British Pakistanis continue to have earlier and higher fertility than other ethnic groups in the UK, despite a recent rise in educational and employment opportunities for British Pakistani women. In this paper we present findings from an interview-based study with 91 British Pakistani women and men in the Northeast of England, in order to throw some light on the reproductive choices and constraints that underlie this apparent demographic anomaly. Drawing on detailed reproductive narratives, we show that, contrary to common assumptions within the literature, relatively high and early fertility does not necessarily indicate a passive acceptance of 'cultural norms' or a reluctance to engage with new social and economic opportunities. For some young women at least, early motherhood represents a deliberate and strategic choice: a way of managing different sets of family-building and other aspirations, embedded within a complex interplay of relationships between individuals, couples and wider families. This study contributes to the emerging 'inter-discipline' of anthropological demography, which offers important insights into population processes that neither discipline can do alone.