When China ended its birth limits, Chinese immigrants in the U.S. immediately started having more babies too.
Even though immigrants in the US are not subject to Chinese law, their fertility rates spiked in sync with China's transition to the Two-Child Policy. This reveals that 'origin culture' and home-country policy signals can dictate the private behavior of migrants more strongly than the actual laws of the country where they live.
Homeland Echoes: The Persistent Grip of Origin Culture on Immigrants
SSRN · 6347078
Do origin-country policy changes echo in the behavior of immigrants who live under a different legal regime? We study Chinese immigrants in the United States around China's staged relaxations of birth limits between 2011 and 2016, culminating in the universal Two-Child Policy. Using complete U.S. Vital Statistics for 2004-2019 and difference-indifferences models, we compare births to Mainland Chinese mothers with births to immigrants from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, and we contrast first-gener