More second generation mothers go back to work

Women in the Netherlands with a non-western foreign background are more likely to stop work when they have their first child than native Dutch women. This is true for both the first and the second generation. Second generation women with a foreign background are more likely to go back to work than first generation women, however.

One or two foreign parents

Second generation women with two foreign parents are more likely than first generation foreign women to work before and after the birth of their first child. For second generation women with one foreign and one Dutch parent, labour participation is even at the same level as that of native Dutch women.

First generation mothers more likely to stop work

Between 1999 and 2003 nine out of ten native Dutch women had a job when their first child was born. After the birth of a first child, this falls to just under eight out of ten.
Labour participation among first generation Moroccan and Turkish women dropped by most: before the birth of the first child, seven out of ten of these women were in a paid job. After the birth of their first child this had dropped to only four out of ten women.
Labour participation also fell more strongly than for native Dutch women among Surinamese and Antillean women and women with other non-western backgrounds.

Working at the birth of the first child, first generation women, 1999/2003

Second generation Moroccans and Turks more likely to stay at home

Before the birth of the first child, eight out of ten second generation women with two foreign born parents had a paid job. The ethnic background is hardly relevant in this respect.
Second generation women with a foreign background are also more likely to stay at home after becoming a mother than native Dutch women. Second generation Moroccan and Turkish women show a relatively large drop in labour participation: only just over one half of these women go back to work after becoming a mother.
Labour participation of women with one non-western and one native Dutch parent is almost the same as that of native Dutch women, both before and after the birth of the first child.

Working at the birth of the first child, second generation women, 1999/2003

 
Marjolijn Das