Do Europeans want children? The significance of job-related spatial mobility

Abstract

ABSTRACT Job-related spatial mobility (JRSM) includes different types of movement situations (long-distance commuting, overnighting, recent relocation, long-distance relationship and multi-mobile) regarding employment and family life and it has implications both for labour market relations and for embarking on parenthood. This article aims to determine how spatial mobility at work can influence childless workers decision on having children in the context of the Great Recession, based on data collected on the occasion of the ‘Job Mobilities and Family Lives in Europe’ panel survey. Conducted in 2007 and 2010–2012, it comprised a sample of 1735 respondents in France, Germany, Spain and Switzerland. The subsample of 257 childless people was analysed using multivariable logistic regression. The findings suggest that initially a switch from non-JRSM to JRSM intensifies the importance attached to occupational reasons for not wanting children, although to a greater extent in Germany and Spain than in France.