Research shows that returns of people that fled can positively influence post-war recoveries on country (Wahba 2021). Education is argued to be of special relevance for post-war recoveries in general. Attendance of children early childhood education (ECE) can play an important role for individuals and society, as participation is in general associated with a positive language, cognitive, and social development supporting a more successful educational career (e.g. Melhuish et al., 2015) and specifically important for the well-being in conflict zones (e.g. Osmanli et al., 2021). Disparities in ECE attendance, according to Boudon's work (1974), can be understood as the result of an interplay of the situation of the family (as supportive factors or barriers) and rational educational decisions. Apart from location and availability (e.g. Sixt 2013), disparities in attendance in ECE are often found with regard to, economic and cultural capital of parents (e.g. Adema et al. 2016) and for immigration countries also the migrant status of families (e.g. Müller et al. 2014). For conflict contexts, the role remigration plays for attendance in ECE and further trajectories has not been well researched.

In this article we therefore analyze the role remigration and war-related international connectivity plays for attendance in ECE in the Kosovan context. For more than 30 years Kosovo is classified as a crisis region, with different phases of war and stability, causing at least 4 different big waves of dynamic war- and crisis-related migration and remigration movements ( Hajdari and Krasniqi 2021). Studying inequalities in ECE attendance is of particular interest as children affected by big migrations waves in the 1990ies are now parents and in Kosovo (like in many conflict regions), with the exception of the preschool-year (age 5-6), non-compulsory, highly privatized and regional differences in availability can be found (Gjelaj et al., 2018). As studies reports on the risk of remigration to Kosovo in terms of reintegration, unemployment, economic situation (Möllers et al. 2017) as well as mental health and the associated loss of quality of life (Lersner et al. 2008) negative primary origin effects can be expected. However, when migration or war-related international personal encounter positively influenced parental acquisition of cultural and social capital (Farrell, Mahon and Mcdonagh, 2012) positive influence, in terms of educational aspiration and insights into the value of ECE, positive secondary origin effects seem plausible.

To analyze disparities in patters of attendance in ECE related to war-caused migrations we use data from home survey and student questionnaire of the TIMSS 2019 for Kosovo (Foy and LaRoche 2020) were the parents and the 4th Grade students themselves (nstudents= 4496; average age was 9.9) also reported on early learning. As remigration was not asked in the survey specifically, we look at 2 indicators to analyze patterns of ECE attendance (min. 3 years, 60 %): Immigration to Kosovo (at least one family member born outside of Kosovo, 8 %) and language practice in families (Every day communication between mother and child in English, German, Italian or French language, 21 %). As these languages are not spoken in Kosovo but major emigration countries, we find it plausible to assume that language competences have been acquired as part of a migration related experience. We calculated logistic regression analysis on EC attendance using the IEA IDB Analyzer, which allows for weighting and correct estimation of standard errors, given the complex sampling of the study.

We find no significant difference in ECE attendance in relation to the immigration of at least one member of the nuclear family. Migration-relevant linguistic family practices are associated with a 2.6 times higher chance of attending ECE, and significant effects remain even when controlling for education and occupational status of parents. Disparities related to educational and economic capital of families can also be confirmed. The indicator language practice in the families, also appears as an independent explanatory factor in explaining achievement differences in mathematics in the fourth grade, and remains significant when controlling for economic and cultural capital as well as aspirations. The study is having a number of limitations, starting with the instrumentation and the nature of the survey data. The strength lies in the utilization of representative large-scale data for a conflict context, where data is scares. The results indicated that (re-)migration by itself, may not be supportive for ECE attendance in crisis contexts. Only when war- and crisis-related migration or opportunities for global encounters support the acquisitions of cultural capital, positive effects for educational decisions of parents can be expected. Obviously, additional qualitative studies and better instrumentation for surveys are needed to further look into when and how war-related migration can be considered a strengthen factor for early childhood education. Supportive findings, would support and emphasis the importance’s of providing high quality education for displaced people also for post-war recovery and educational opportunities of next generations.

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