‘That’s so Sexist!’ How Highly Skilled Female Return Migrants Try to Shape Gender Norms in Kosovo

Kosovo is a country profoundly shaped by migration. A growing body of literature pays tribute to this.However, up to now, it has barely focused on the implications of return. Female returnees – and especiallyhighly skilled female returnees – are even less likely to be in the focus of research. Against this background,this paper investigates how highly skilled female Kosovars experience migration to North America orWestern Europe and their subsequent return to Kosovo. Within this setup, the focus is on the impact ofmigration on the participants’ gender norms and their attempts to shape those in Kosovo upon return. Theresults show that all participants experienced their sojourn abroad as empowering. The majority made useof this empowerment and actively fought for gender equality after return. However, resistance by the localpopulation and reintegration issues impeded their engagement, prompting every second participantamongst those interviewed for this study to consider re-emigration. Despite this, two-thirds of theparticipants stayed and continued their engagement for gender equality but usually in an adapted manner.The paper concludes that highly skilled female return migrants have great – although fragile – potential topromote gender equality in Kosovo.