Abstract

This paper firstly aims at identifying the different experiences of the first and the second generation of guest workers from Southern to Northern and Western Europe. Secondly, it tries to explain how the two different generations were coping in their biographies with the difficulties and the new chances of the transnational space that had developed in Europe. In the third and the fourth part of this paper therefore will be explained, how the grandchildren of former guest-workers - despite their disadvantaged position in the receiving societies - could take advantage of the chances of the new transnational space. Finally, in its fifth and last part, the paper refers to the social and cultural differences of offspring of migrants nowadays. The hypothesis is that there is no homogeneous "third generation" of former migrant groups, but that they all in different ways are part of "post-migrant" societies in Europe. In this paper, generational experiences will be conceptualised as the outcome of biographical processes and negotiations of belonging. This can be analysed through the method of "Biographical Policy Evaluation", as I will discuss in the last part of the paper.