What a personal journey this has been! My understanding and growth about migration issues was immensely enriched as I fervently turned each page and became enraptured by the vivid ‘lived stories’ of each migrant and their implications for educational change.

This, let me say immediately, is a rare and exceptional book that taps into one of the most poorly understood phenomenon in education – the lives of migrants crossing and re-crossing borders, as they flee poverty or conflict on the one hand, and pursue a better quality of life, education and security on the other hand.

The wealth of this book lies not only in giving us glimpses of the storied lives of migrants across the world but in the immense pragmatic value it holds for teachers. Utilizing a social justice thread, the author masterfully weaves together a rich, colorful tapestry of individualized portraits that reflect the diversified nature of migrant journeys and allow the voices of migrants to touch the very chords of human compassion. The author goes against the grain of typecasting migrants only into legal (documented) and undocumented categories and its associated stereotypical notions and goes to extreme lengths to painstakingly describe the complexities and intricacies of diverse individually and socially led migrant journeys.

The book is organized into four parts: beginnings; the stories; the metaphors and metonymies; and conclusion and future directions. The author takes us on a journey that introduces a diversity of experiences. Moving seamlessly from adventurer, refugee/asylum seeker, family-reunion, economic migrants, third culture kids and love and/or marriage migrants, the author not only broadens our visage and understanding of migrants, but offers insightful discussions related to each case.

Interesting themes emerge from each of these cases that present a panorama of distinctly diverse migrant experiences. We learn from Michi that education is not all about a career and that non-traditional learning opportunities allow people to ‘see the world through the lens of many types of vulnerability, cultivating a rich imagination.