Fecundidad diferencial de distintas subpoblaciones de mujeres en España : una diferencia no tan grande

The shadow of a large gap in fertility looms again over the European populations. During the last century, the contribution of the foreign population to natural population growth constituted a leitmotiv in Demographics and other disciplines. The concern thereby is not based on the number of members of a family; that is the quantity of children that foreign women have, but on the long-term consequences of this matter. The question that provokes anxiety is centered on the proportion of foreign parents or parents with foreign origins of future generations. The principal difference that has been observed until now comprises the moment in which women have their children, and not exclusively the final number of children. The aim of this paper is to contrast the differences of fertility and birth rates between the Spanish female population and foreign women who currently live in the country. The hypothesis which will be demonstrated formulates that the gap between different indicators of fertility is not as big as supposed and as other raw indicators made us think. A methodological discussion is imposed about this issue because each indicator represents a different aspect of fertility of women.