Fertility Norms as Unifying Framework: Coordinating Migration and Fertility Decisions in China′s Internal Migration

Journal article

Research on the migration‐fertility nexus has generated five theoretical mechanisms – socialisation, assimilation, selection, disruption, and adaptation – that are typically examined in isolation from one another. Drawing on 66 life‐story interviews with internal migrants in Shenzhen, China, this article argues that these mechanisms share a common foundation in fertility norms, understood as socially embedded expectations about reproduction. While socialisation and assimilation have always centred on normative processes, the empirical analysis demonstrates that selection, disruption, and adaptation are likewise mediated by fertility norms – shaping how migrants assess destinations (selection), experience changes in normative constraint (disruption), and reinterpret reproductive expectations across contexts (adaptation). By establishing fertility norms as a unifying analytical lens, the article shows that migration and fertility operate as coordinated life domains. The analysis reveals that prior to migration, individuals evaluate destinations in light of anticipated fertility norms (selection). During migration and settlement, geographic separation from origin communities weakens normative monitoring and sanctioning, creating space for revising reproductive plans (disruption). Over time, sustained exposure to destination contexts reshapes fertility orientations and practices (adaptation), all unfolding against the longer‐term influence of childhood socialisation and intergenerational assimilation. This coordination reveals individuals as strategic navigators who integrate spatial mobility and reproductive decisions together, rather than experiencing them as separate, sequential events.

Authors: You, X

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Wiley
• Journal: Population, Space and Place
• Volume: 32
• Issue: 2
• Article number: e70230
• Publication date: 2026-02-19
• Acceptance date: 2026-02-12
• DOI: 10.1002/psp.70230
• EISSN: 1544-8452
• ISSN: 1544-8444
• Language: English
• Keywords: fertility norms; migration‐fertility nexus; internal migration; China; life course