New article on highly skilled female return migrants to Kosovo

25 April 2023

Janine Pinkow-Läpple is a PhD researcher at IAMO and Humboldt University Berlin. Part of her current research was published in a new article entitled ‘That’s so Sexist!’ How Highly Skilled Female Return Migrants Try to Shape Gender Norms in Kosovo in the Central and Eastern European Migration Review. The article is open-access and can be downloaded here. 

The research presented in the article is based on data she collected in an empirical study on highly skilled female returnees to their home country Kosovo. The findings illustrate that returnees experienced their stay as empowering. Most of them were eager to fight conservative gender norms upon their return. They actively pushed for gender equality in their families and circles of friends, at work and through voluntary work. However, this enthusiasm was soon dampened by the local population's resistance and the interviewees' severe reintegration problems, prompting every second participant in this study to consider re-emigration. The paper concludes that highly skilled female return migrants have great – although fragile – potential to promote gender equality in Kosovo.

Follow Janine under her Twitter account @JPinkow_Laepple.