In the 1960s and 1990s, internal strife in Rwanda has caused a mass flow of refugees
into neighbouring countries. This article explores the cumulated fertility of Rwandan refugee
women and the survival of their children. To this end, we use a national survey conducted
between 1999 and 2001 and covering 6,420 former refugee and non-refugee households. The
findings support old-age security theories of reproductive behaviour: refugee women had
higher fertility but their children had lower survival chances. Newborn girls suffered more than
boys, suggesting that the usual sex differential in child survival observed in most populations
changes under extreme living conditions.