| dc.description.abstract | The main hypothesis in this study was that
people t s socio-economic conditions will influence their
decisions about family size and family planning
Most of the studies on fertility tend to either
focus on macro-level aggregate variables, or at the
micro-level, they tend to be limited to economic
interpretations. In order to overcome some of the
weaknesses of macro-level studies of fertility, the
present study attempted to examine at micro-level the
relationship between group-level socio-economic
conditions and family size by focusing on particular
Asian* groups in Nairobi.
A one-shot comparative research design was adopted
for the study , The research design was intended to
identify different and contrasting, yet internally
homogeneous Groupings or communities in order to permit
generalizations on the Asian comrnunity in Kenya. The
Asian population living in Nairobi Was chosen both to
control for regional variations and also because Nairobi
has the largest proportion of the Asian population in
* In this study the term Kenyan Asians refers
to persons of indi an or Pakistani. origin, Sometimes
the KeHyan Asians are referred to as Indians. Therefore
in this study the term Asian and Indian are used
interchangeably.
Kenya. A purposive selection of communities was
undertaken to maximize selection of different ethnic
and religious cornrnunities, and internal to each
community, respondents were picked through systematic
random sampling. The four communities chosen for the
present study were two Muslim communities, the Ismailis
and the Lohars, and t.wo Hindu communi ties, the Shahs
and the Suthars. The basic tools for data collection
were the interview schedule for couples, key informant
interviews and available data.
The major findings of the study were that the
Asians are of a much higher socio-econom:Lc status
than the rest of the national population, as measured
by income, education and occupation levels as well as
levels of living scaleso However, there are internal
differences among the Asians. The exposure and westernization
scales also reflect considerable internal variations
between the sample groups. The Ismailies consistently
are at the top on most of the socio-economic measures
followed closely by the Shahs and Suthars, with the
Lohars at the bottom, being a very traditional community.
As anticipated in the Demographic Transition
Theory, some of these factors are related to frnnily
size, whereby the least westernized group wants and has
more children than the more westernized groups. The
study showed that the Asians have a small family size
of less than four chil.dren which is considerably
lower than the national average of 8 children.The
majority of t:n.emwant small families and tend t0
achieve this goal through modern and traditional
contraceptive use. There were variations in family
size between the cornnunities so that the Lohars had
and wanted more children than the other groups. An
interpretive scheme was developed to guide the study
and to assist in the analysis of the relevant socioeconomic
factors related to fertility behaviour ,
Some of the socio-economic factors influencing the
decisions of the Asians regarding family size and family
planning appear to be aspirations to western life styles,
occupation, preference for sons, education, perceived
mobility and community.
The Asian emphasis on the 'quality' of children
rather than quantity stands '"Out significantly in
the study.Groups of higher socio-economi c statu.s
wanted and had fewer children because of the very high
costs of educating and raising them. Education is seen
as a major cost, as most Asian par errts put a high premium
on educationo This is probably related to tne perception
of insecurity by the Asians in Kenya, and the possibility
of their eventual emigration from thereo Because their
orientation is towards western countries, a move to the
competitive west would require higher education levels
for their children in order to get employment. Besides,
a large number of children would make settlement in
the West difficult, since these countries advocate
small analysizes and emphasize the costs of children.
While education correlated highly with the munber
of children, on the basis of regression analysi3, the
study concluded that education is only one of the factors
influencing the number of children Asian couples have.
It is argued that education encompasses very many other
important social and economic variables, and that in
examining the influence of education, we are talking
of the confounding effects of many other variables.
Overall, the independent variables in the study
explained about 30% of the variance in the number of
children people haveo This implies that a large amount
of the variation would have to be accounted for in
further research.
In conclusion, it has been possible to demonstrate
in this study that the analysis of fertility behaviour
at the macro-level is a narrow approach and does not
adequately offer explanations for decisions about the
number of children , through the technique of comparative
analysis it has been possible to show that fertility
behaviour is influenced by socio-economic conditions
specific to certain groups and communities. One
policy implication of such findings is that population
policies at the national level should not apply
universally to the whole country. | en |
