Will the Odds Ever Be in Our Favour?

For many, there was hope attached to the expansion of the European Union (EU) eastward, and perhaps I had a lot of hope in my life (and for my life) at that time too because I was starting university. When I moved to the UK, my country, the Czech Republic, was not yet part of the EU; the EU expansion happened when I lived on an inner-city London estate as a single parent. Now I again live in a country that is not part of the EU, and this parting was perhaps full of hope for some people, too. The EU expansion changed the trajectory of my life in the UK and shaped my academic career. This contribution reflects on the challenges of carving a space in UK academia as a working-class migrant academic and living through the changes brought by EU expansion and then, in turn, by Brexit.