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Several consecutive global crises, including the collapse of the Socialist bloc, the global economic crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the current war in Ukraine have put the lives of citizens of former Yugoslavia and the former Soviet Union under threat. How do the most affected amongst them manage to survive global crises? How do their experiences from previous crises influence their behavior when a new global crisis emerges? Through a unique comparison of life paths of post-Yugoslav and post-Soviet migrants and their communities across Europe, the Americas, and Africa, Sanja Tepavcevic offers a novel theoretical approach revealing a relationship between loyalty to communities and resilience to global crises. For many post-Yugoslav and post-Soviet migrants, the (perception of) exclusion from communities that they belonged to prior to a crisis tends to reshape their sense of belonging and modifies their loyalty to and identification with a community or collective identity. These processes represent psychological and cultural (or 'soft') forms of resilience. Similarly, as Tepavcevic demonstrates, greater physical (or 'tangible') resilience shows itself in emigration and the formation of alternative communities. By combining and analyzing narratives, participant observations, and theories of resilience and loyalty borrowed from social, behavioral, and the natural sciences, Tepavcevic demonstrates that global crises challenge existing communities and generate various forms of migrant communities, loyalty, and resilience. Among others, social scientists, migration policy-makers, and migrants will benefit from reading this book.
About the author
Dr Sanja Tepavcevic is Adjunct Professor at the Department of Modern Philology and Social Sciences at the University of Pannonia and Associate Researcher at the Institute of Advanced Studies at Koszeg, Hungary. Previously, she held research and teaching posts in the Institute of European and Global Studies at Split, Eötvös Lórand University, and Central European University. She is the author of Diversity of Migrant Entrepreneurship in Varieties of European Capitalism: Post-Soviet Entrepreneurship in Austria, Spain and Hungary (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023). Her papers have been published in Transnational Corporations Journal, Journal of East-West Business, and Journal of Identity and Migration Studies.
Report
Sanja Tepavcevic's book provides a valuable and captivating window into the realm of global crises, resilience, and challenges related to Migration Studies that are inaccessible to most of us. The courage of a woman to "catch up" with such a sensitive, deep and broad topic, and at the same time, comprehensively, analytically and synthetically shed light on phenomena and processes, is to salute and "bend to the knees". Therefore, I highly recommend that ordinary readers, experts and social scientists (especially) read this book. -Rubin Zemon, Center for Advanced Research, Skopje, North Macedonia
