Transnational cultural capital in migrant youth’s school transitions: mobility trajectories between Ghana and Germany

Research on migrant youth’s school transitions has focused on the
country of residence, ignoring migrant youth’s pre-migration lives in the
country of origin. Drawing on 14 months of multi-sited ethnographic
fieldwork between Ghana and Germany, this paper instead analyses
school transitions through migrant youth’s mobility trajectories,
encompassing all geographic moves and concurrent family
constellations over time and space, both before and after migration. A
mobility lens shows how resources gained in the country of origin –
including confidence, discipline, respect, and adaptability – help
migrant youth navigate their school transitions in the country of
residence, thus becoming forms of transnational cultural capital.