Transnational biographies

Abstract

"In this paper we discuss the concept of transnational biographies in migration studies. We use a biographical case study from the relatively new research field of advancement through education to explore that a transnational biography is not just a product of subjectivity but also a way of gaining access to invisible but nonetheless objective structures of transnational migration spaces. Our thesis is that the discovery and use of a transnational European educational space made it possible for second generation migrants in Germany to circumvent the exclusionary mechanisms of the German education system much more effectively than through unconditional assimilation into that system." (author's abstract)