Childcare, work and immigration. Do Italian and foreign mothers behave differently?

In this paper we study two aspects of the decision-making process following the birth of a child: whether or not the mother works, and whether or not the couple provides the child with formal childcare. Focusing on Padova and its district (North-East Italy), we discuss differences in the strategies of Italian and foreign mothers, controlling for socio-economic status, opinions on women's roles, and family structure, using the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition. Six to thirty months after the birth of a child, the proportion of foreign mothers who are not employed is more than double that of Italian mothers (51% vs. 21%). In addition, 25% of Italian women entrust their children to the care of their parents and in-laws, vs. only 13% of foreign women. Although there are differences in the effects of variables on participation at work in the two groups, what matters most is the different composition of Italian and foreign women, especially as regards education and partners’ characteristics. Even as regards the maximum price a couple is willing to pay for formal childcare, differences between the two groups can mostly be explained by differences in composition.