We examine how the discontinuation of schooling among left-behind children is related to multiple dimensions of male labour migration: the accumulation of migration experience, the timing of these migration experiences in the child's life course, and the economic success of the migration. Our setting is rural southern Mozambique, an impoverished area with massive male labour out-migration. Results show that fathers’ economically successful labour migration is more beneficial for children's schooling than unsuccessful migration or non-migration. There are large differences, however, by gender: compared with sons of non-migrants, sons of migrant fathers (regardless of migration success) have lower rates of school discontinuation, while daughters of migrant fathers have rates of school discontinuation like those of daughters of non-migrants. Furthermore, accumulated labour migration across the child's life course is beneficial for boys’ schooling, but not girls’. Remittances sent in the past year reduce the rate of discontinuation for sons, but not daughters. © 2017 The Authors. International Migration © 2017 IOM

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male labor migration education rural area Mozambique Child