Chapter 1: Conceptualizing Immigrant Agency An Introduction.- Chapter 2: Post Soviet Immigrant Population Between the 1990s to 2000s.- Chapter 3: Personal Transitions amidst Shifting Societal Landscapes.- Chapter 4: Human Agency between Conceptual Morass and Mosaics.- Chapter 5: Agency through the Prism of Long Term Migration.- Chapter 6: Crafting the Methodological Framework.- Chapter 7: Multimethod Empirical Approach.- Chapter 8: Balancing Acts Self Identification and Identity Formations.- Chapter 9: CoMigrant Identity Frameworks Semantic Complexities and Perceptions.- Chapter 10: Language Use An Individual and Group Perspective.- Chapter 11: Language as a Norm and as a Deviation.- Chapter 12: Migrant Businesses and Post Soviet Migration.- Chapter 13: Nourishing Culinary Memories through Consumption.- Chapter 14: Scheherazade an Immigrant Dancing Group.- Chapter 15: Fostering Group Unity and Integration.- Chapter 16: Community Engagement and Networks.- Chapter 17: Immigrant Agency Theory Conceptual Foundations and Practical Implications.

‘[A] response to the current calls in migration studies to democraticize and decolonize migration research and to abolish the hierarchy between the researcher (= citizen) and the researched (= migrant). Such an emancipatory intention resonates with the author’s methodological program to develop an ‘immigrant agency theory’ on the basis of Grounded Theory methodology by reconstructing ‘sayings’ and ‘doings’ around migrant agency ‘from below’.’
—Anna Amelina, Professor of Sociology, Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany

This open access book explores the dynamics of human agency within the complex context of settlement-oriented immigration through an in-depth case study of immigrants from the former Soviet Union who embarked on their journey to Germany during the 1990s and early 2000s. Employing a transnational lens and an interpretive approach, the book presents a novel empirically grounded Immigrant Agency Theory. Bridging the realms of integration and transnationalism, the Immigrant Agency Theory is a multifaceted analytical tool encompassing representational aspects (identity formations and frameworks), expressive dimensions (language use, multilingual practices, and translanguaging), and operational facets (e.g., contrasting (non)economic actions as entrepreneurship and active leisure). These elements serve as mechanisms facilitating transition, engagement, resistance, and the expression of flexible ethnic boundary-making, cultural pluralism, and the maintenance of difference through auto-exoticism as exemplified by the studied population groups. This monograph is valuable for sociologists, migration scholars, social linguists, researchers of cultural studies and Eastern Europe interested in understanding the correlation between historical events and East-West European migration processes during the transition period of the Soviet and post-Soviet space.

Tetiana Havlin is a sociologist, researcher, visiting professor and chair for Intercultural Studies at Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg, Germany. 

“The book can be considered as a response to the current calls in migration studies to democraticize and decolonize migration research and to abolish the hierarchy between the researcher (= citizen) and the researched (= migrant). Such an emancipatory intention resonates with the author’s methodological program to develop an ‘immigrant agency theory’ on the basis of Grounded Theory methodology by reconstructing ‘sayings’ and ‘doings’ around migrant agency ‘from below’.” (Prof. Dr. Anna Amelina, a sociologist and professor for Intercultural Communication, Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany)

“A timely contribution that brings immigrant voices back to the center of migration debates. By tracing how agency unfolds through identity, language, and everyday practices, this book makes sense of post-Soviet migration to Germany in ways that are both grounded and illuminating.” (Assoc. Prof. Dr. Martina Cvajner, Associate Professor: University of Trento, Italy)

“Overall, this is a very knowledgeable and convincing book, in which the researcher's comprehensive expertise, profound knowledge of qualitative social research methods and a critical, reflexive attitude towards her own research are combined in a highly successful manner.” (Prof. Dr. Karin Schittenhelm, Senior Researcher and Spokesperson of the DFG Research Unit “Transborder Mobility and Institutional Dynamics”, University of Siegen, Germany)

“It is not an exaggeration to compare Tetiana Havlin’s study on the one hand with the research of the Chicago School, and on the other hand, because of her repeated emphasis on the need for reflexivity in data collection and analysis, with the sociological work of Pierre Bourdieu. The author applies a wide range of data collection and analysis methods, developing her methodological toolkit specifically for each research aspect.” (Prof. Dr. Stefan Kutzner, Professor of Sociology and scientific advisor during the postdoctoral degree (habilitation), University of Siegen, Germany)

“This book is a valuable contribution to the field of migration studies, as it uses the relatively little-studied phenomenon of post-Soviet migration to make a broader theoretical contribution about immigrant agency.” (Prof. Dr. Jannis Panagiotidis, Scientific Director of Research Center for the History of Transformations (RECET), Austria)

This book is open access, which means that you have free and unlimited access Assesses post-Soviet migration to Germany in the 1990s and 2000s from a historically sociological perspective Presents a novel theory of immigrant agency, based on identity formations, language use, and (non)economic actions lluminates individual and collective standpoints by analyzing cultural associations and entrepreneurial networks

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