Political Perspectives 2010 Vol 4 (2), 86-104. 86                Raphi Rechitsky University of Minnesota ABSTRACT This paper explores the impacts of social exclusion in Ukraine on transnational migrant belonging. It draws on ethnographic interviews conducted with Afghan, West African, and other migrant communities in the cities of Kyiv and Kharkiv in 2009. The findings show how experiences with marginalisation—such as barriers to legal residence and work, restrictions on mobility, and racial discrimination and violence—illuminate the formation of identities of belonging not only with respect to the host community, but also to countries of origin and potential alternative destinations. Analysing identities of belonging as emerging out of social exclusion in new destination and transit countries, this paper argues, offers a unique opportunity to re(conceptualize migrant transnationalism and the role of the state in the age of globalisation. 1 Keywords: belonging, globalisation, identity, migration, social exclusion, transnationalism 1 This research was supported by the Hella Mears Fellowship at the Center for German and European Studies and the Anna Welsh Bright award at the Department of Sociology at the University of Minnesota. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meetings of the Association for the Study of Nationalities at Columbia University, New York, April 15-17, 2010. Correspondence with the author at mailto:raphirech@gmail.comrechi009@umn.edu , Department of Sociology; 909 Social Science Tower; 267 19 th avenue South; Minneapolis, MN 55407.