Routledge On the Shoulders of Grandmothers: Gender, Migration, and Post-Soviet Nation-State Building

On the Shoulders of Grandmothers is a global ethnography of Ukrainian transnational migration. Gendered migrant subjectivities are a key site for understanding the production of neoliberal capitalism and Ukrainian nation-state building, a fraught process that places Ukraine precariously between Europe and Russia with dramatic implications for the political economy of the region. However, processes of gender and migration that undergird transnational nation-state building require further attention. Solari compares two patterns of Ukrainian migration: the "forced" exile of middle-aged women, most grandmothers, to Italy and the "voluntary" exodus of families, led by the same cohort of middle-aged women, to the United States. In both receiving sites these migrants are caregivers to the elderly. Using in-depth interviews and ethnographic data collected in three countries, Solari shows that Ukrainian nation-state building occurs transnationally. She examines the collective practices of migrants who are building the "new" Ukraine from the outside in and shaping both Italy and the United States as well. The Ukrainian state, in order to fulfil its First World aspirations of joining Europe and distancing itself from all things Soviet, is pursuing a gendered reorganization of family and work structures to achieve a transition from socialism to capitalism. This has created a labor force of migrant grandmothers who carry the new Ukraine on their shoulders. Solari shows that this post-Soviet economic transformation requires a change in the moral order as migrant women struggle to understand how to be "good" mothers and grandmothers and men join women in attempts to teach their children to be successful and honorable people, now that the social rules have drastically changed. Looking at individual migrant women and men and their families in Ukraine allows us to see the production of neoliberal capitalism and new nationalism from the ground up and the outside in for a region that promises to be a flashpoint in our century. Review "As a fascinating addition to the literature on gender and nation-state building, globalization, and transnational processes, the book passionately integrates personal, biographic, and intimate details of everyday life. On the Shoulders of Grandmothers can easily be enjoyed by academic as well as nonacademic audiences as the life stories hold the core of the book. At the same time, the book is not a simple discussion of the strug-gles and aspirations of Ukrainian grandmothers but rather a valuable source of riveting insights into the everyday life, and the changing moral and gender order, in the post-Soviet period. The clarity of Solari’s writing and the reflexive account of her dilemmas as a researcher makes the transnational, comparative data engaging and fluent. This work should be included in the shelves of various disciplines such as Gender and Women Studies, Global/ization Studies, and Transnational migration studies as well as Area Studies."Marhabo Saparova, Northeastern University, in Gender & Society "Why would a well-educated, middle-aged Ukrainian woman leave behind a beloved child or grandchild to care for elderly clients in Italy and the U.S.―not to return, in some instances, for many years? Taking a fresh approach to a forgotten type of global woman, Solari offers a poignant account of displaced grandmothers and the dreams attached to their hard-earned remittances. This is a highly illuminating and original book." -- Arlie Russell Hochschild, author of Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right "A meticulously researched and beautifully written ethnography about how migration transforms nations from the outside in. Solari tells the compelling story of how Ukranian grandmothers living in 'exodus' in California and in 'exile' in Italy helped create the post-Soviet, newly capitalist Ukraine. Her narrative challenges much of the conventional wisdom a