Resident Alien and Other Stories is ananthology of short stories by seven authors, six of who are women,and one a man. Each of them has contributed two stories to thecollection. The authors’ backgrounds reveal that they areexperienced creative writers who have published variously, and someare reputable award winners. The wide-ranging preoccupations of theauthors in the stories indicate an assortment of concerns in theirdifferent environments. The issues in the stories include migration,relocation, and the repercussions of both, the implications oftransitional experiences on the different people involved,socio-cultural realities that impose specific demands on people, thedifficulty in returning to the African motherland from the AfricanDiaspora, and human behaviours, as well as people's reactions to thesocio-cultural expectations of their environments. A dominant motifthat underlies the stories is physical movement – migration.

Several of the stories highlight the disillusionment that migrantcharacters experience as their dreams and expectations get shatteredwhen they confront the harsh realities of their new environments.‘Resident Alien’, by Omofolabo Ajayi-Soyinka, is an epistolary thatdepicts the predicament of the narrator, a Nigerian, who moves tothe United States of America with exotic dreams, which cause her tomake promises to family and friends at home. She holds a Master'sdegree in Psychology and Social Welfare, has a twenty-year workexperience from her home country, Nigeria, and had headed adepartment with thirty-five staff members. Unfortunately, all thesedo not facilitate her getting any of the prestigious jobs shedesires and seeks to have in spite of her status as a legitimatepermanent resident in the US. Her Green Card is of no consequencebecause she is regarded as alien, her Nigerian accent betrays her,and in two years of job-seeking, she looks seventy-five, rather thanforty-five.

Ajayi-Soyinka's protagonist bears the frustration of being rejectedin a foreign environment, just as does Teniola Oyenuga in TomiAdeaga's ‘The Expired Welcome’. Teniola gains admission to studyInternational Relations at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University,Frankfurt am Main, Germany. In seven years, she acquires the Germanlanguage, and obtains both Bachelor's and Master's degrees. Sheneeds a job urgently, or to marry a German, to be able to stay on inGermany. All the application letters she sends out receive negativeresponses, mainly because she is black.