1 XXVI IUSSP INTERNATIONAL POPULATION CONFERENCE Marrakech, 27 Sept. – 2 Oct.                  Raffaele Ferrara°, Piero Giorgi°°, Marija Mamolo°°°, Salvatore Strozza° ° University of Naples Federico II °° University of Teramo °°° Istat - Rome DRAFT VERSION. PLEASE DO NOT CITE NOR QUOTE  !" Growing attention is being placed on the demographic behaviour of immigrants in southern European countries which, having become major receiving areas in the past few decades, have recently recorded a fast growth of their foreign populations and, at the same time, a remarkable increase in related demographic events (Coleman, 2006; Cordón, Maldonado, 2006; Sardon, 2006; Bonifazi, 2007; Sobotka, 2008). In particular, an analysis of the immigrants’ reproductive behaviour appears to be of special interest in two countries, namely Italy and Spain, which have recorded the lowest levels of the pe- * Paper produced in the framework of the research “La fecondità degli stranieri nei paesi europei di vecchia e nuova immigrazione/Foreigners’fertility in European countries with recent and old histories of immigration”, headed by Salvatore Strozza and funded by the Department of Statistical Science (Univ. of Naples Federico II). This research work is part of the 2008 PRIN Research Programme “Società in transizione: dai vecchi assetti ai nuovi equilibri" coordinated by Luigi Di Comite. The paper has been conceived and written jointly by the authors. Specifically, R. Ferrara is responsible for section 3.1, P. Giorgi for section 2.2, M. Mamolo for section 3.2 and S. Strozza for sections 1 and 2.1. The conclu- sions have been written together by all the authors; R. Ferrara has prepared the tables and figures.