Structural Assimilation and Ethnic Fertility in Ghana

This study explores the relative importance of socioeconomic and cthnic/cultural factors on possible convergence in reproduction among four and residual Ghanaian ethnic groups. Two views on differences in ethnic fertility have emerged in the literature. The first is the characteristics assimilation thesis which is based on the premise that when socioeconomic and demographic differences between social groups are statistically controlled, their fertility levels should converge. The other view, the cultural/ ethnic effect thesis, attributes group fertility differences to the influence of subgroup culture and experiences. No study in this area of research has explored the relative efficacy of these explanations within the context of Ghana. We study the Twi, the Fante/Other Akan, the Ewe and the Ga-Adangbe ethnic groups and the Northern Groups using data from the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey of 1993. The results derived from the analysis are more congruent with characteristics assimilation thesis because once sociodemographic differences between these groups and a standard population are equalized through statistical controls, the fertility differences virtually disappear. The cultural/ethnic hypothesis, which stresses the influence of group norms, beliefs, values and experiences in group behaviour, including reproduction, is of no importance among the groups under study.