Fertility Responses to Granting Legal Status: Evidence from Venezuelan Forced Migrants in Colombia

Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes, Ana María Ibáñez, Sandra V. Rozo and Salvador Traettino

Economic Development and Cultural Change, 2025, vol. 74, issue 1, 277 - 303

Abstract: How do regularization programs shape the fertility of forced migrants? We use data from a unique panel study of more than 1,000 Venezuelan forced migrants residing in Colombia to study this question through a difference-in-differences design. We compare changes in childbearing patterns of regularized forced-migrant households relative to those experienced by nonregularized forced-migrant families before and after the launch of a regularization program that granted full access to social services as well as work permits. Eligibility to the regularization program was based on a migrant’s date of arrival to Colombia, but the program was announced after the arrival of the migrants and was unknown to the public, hence this study can credibly evaluate the program’s effect. The main findings suggest that regularized forced-migrant households reduced their childbearing relative to their nonregularized counterparts. The effects appear to be driven by program beneficiaries’ improved access to labor market opportunities and health insurance, which may have facilitated access to family planning services.

Date: 2025
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