Immigrant-Native Disparities in Mothers’ Labour Market Participation: The Role of Formal and Informal Childcare

Mengyao Wu , University of Salamanca
Alberto Del Rey Poveda, University of Salamanca
D. Susie Lee, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR)
Silvia Loi, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

Both formal and informal childcare are closely related to maternal employment, as they help to balance motherhood and paid work. Although immigrants’ access to childcare is more limited than that of natives, less is known about whether and to what extent the immigrant-native differences in childcare use are associated with mothers’ employment. Using data from the 2018 Spanish Fertility Survey on mothers of children aged 0–3 years, we estimate the odds of maternal employment by immigrant status and childcare arrangement. Our results show that, for both immigrants and natives, childcare use is positively associated to maternal labor force participation. Nevertheless, without the use of external childcare, immigrants show 77% lower odds of employment than natives. These findings confirm the importance of childcare availability in addressing social and economic inequalities between native and immigrant groups, thus contributing to immigrant women’s integration processes in the new country.

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 Presented in Session P1. Fertility, Family, Life Course