The Research Memoir of an Intra-EU Migrant Who Has Become a Guest in a Settler Colonial State

Abstract

AbstractI started my graduate studies, outside my own country of origin (Greece), in 1990 at a time when the whole of Europe was experiencing a reconnection; a new sense of freedom, a novel enthusiasm, a set of landslide social, economic and political changes, similar to a quiet revolution. Migration has been a very important part of this post-1989 ‘revolution’ in Europe. And it has swept me and my post-doctoral studies into it, moving my career compass from the study of minority parties to migration and integration research. This chapter offers a self-reflexive, almost auto-ethnographical account of how my life and my work have been intertwined. I am looking into how my readings and writings have reflected to some extent my experiences while also helping to dissect and analyse those. Naturally my family, my husband and four children, have been drawn, willy nilly, into this great transnational journey. The aim of this chapter, as with our whole book, is to blend the academic with the creative writing in an effort to enrich our understanding of international migrations.