This book works at a number of levels, linking a sophisticated discussion of selfhood with the decision to migrate or remain. The case study is Ukraine, but the lessons to be learned are much wider. The questions ' who am I? ' , ' how am I to live? ' and ' where am I to live? ' are conjoined in this rich and textured account. Bastian Vollmer is to be congratulated for breaking the usual mould used to explain migration. ' Professor Robin Cohen, University of Oxford, UK
' This is important work. Bastian Vollmer' s book makes a vital contribution and he should be commended for this excellently drafted piece of work. The book explores an underdeveloped perspective in the field of politics and migration: the perspective of migrants as agents. This perspective is extremely well discussed under the consideration of structure and context. A more interesting and timely context could not have been selected. Bastian Vollmer draws from a wide landscape of theories and disciplines, but he successfully accommodates these and provides significant insights into the situation of migration, and of Ukraine and its society as a whole - just before the riots in Kyiv took place. As the developments and discussions in Ukraine and in the EU continue, this work will remain a standard reference. This is a book that every scholar, student and policy-maker with an interest of subjectivities and politics of migration should read. ' - Dr. Olena Malynovska, Principal Researcher at the National Institute forStrategic Studies, Kyiv, Ukraine
