Life Strategies of Migrants from Crisis Regimes

This book offers a profoundly new examination of life strategies of migrants from regimes in crisis. As more European regimes are in crisis and migration to Asia-Pacific accelerates, people are called to re-assess their everyday lives and experience different reactions: some choose to 'survive', while others choose to 'achieve'. Establishing the 'life strategy' of a migrant as the outcome of a mix of personal choices, individual actions and structural frames, this volume takes migration from post-independence Ukraine to Australia as a central case study to show how people shape their lives in response to regime transitions and crises; what life strategies individuals pursue to cope with social change; and why these individuals chose migration to Australia. By focusing on the unique paired comparison of two opposing life strategies-the dynamic, risk-taking and future-oriented 'achievement life strategy' and the conservative, risk-minimizing and survival-oriented 'survival life strategy', the book compels us to reassess what we mean by migration and regime crisis in order to adequately respond to the global challenges confronting numerous democracies today. As such, it will appeal to scholars of sociology and politics with interests in migration, political theory and democracy.