Description: The topic of cultural mediation in Italian migratory contexts will be presented from a historical and conceptual perspective so as to point out differences, if any, and/or persisting similarities in meaning, use and potential of this socio-political practice "exported" more than a decade ago from France into Italy.The paper will also question notions of cultural mediation as a practice to tackle and solve contingent problems in order to facilitate immigrants' "integration" into Italian society and culture, rather than as a political and educational opportunity to discuss and change quality of services both for immigrants and natives.From life stories collected from cultural mediators working in Turin (Italy), the paper aims to discuss the construction of identity that training and working as a cultural mediator entails.The purpose of the paper (and of the research among cultural mediators) is to indicate how cultural mediation can be an interesting research area to understand how different cultural acquisitions intersect and in which kind(s) of "biographic transition" they develop. The author had already done research on this topic in 2003 and 2004, presenting the findings at ECER 2003 and 2004. Of the two papers presented in 2003 one was published in EERJ in 2004 and the other one will be published in Intercultural Education in Summer 2006.The research presented by the paper is part of a larger university research project that intends to study "biographical transitions", namely processes by which one or more individuals move from a condition or status to another thus partially or totally modifying their own identity and the web of social relations they are part of.The research project will be interdisciplinary, since the topic of "biographical transitions" will be studied by scholars from different research areas (education, anthropology, sociology, psychology) who plan to share and discuss both the findings and the theoretical and methodological angles from which they were collected.In this sense, the research project this paper (and the research among cultural mediators) is part of represents an innovation in social and educational research (at least within the Italian context), as disciplinary competences will be initially juxtaposed to be then integrated among themselves. Empirical findings will be shared and compared, so as to bring into relief both similarities and differences dependent on the specific "biographical transition" explored and on the theoretical and methodological tools employed. Methodology: The research methodology used will be that of life stories. Conclusions: As the author has already presented earlier research on the same topic, and the present one is partially a continuation of it, it is expected that the 2006 findings will confirm the interpretation of cultural mediation that had been advanced by the author, namely that cultural mediators themselves are extremely critical of the work they are involved in owing to difficult working conditions, limited future prospects, and limited professional training. Ironically, precisely these structural and work constraints seem to support and enhance their awareness as individuals whose identity is far more complex than current and popular notions of cultural mediation would suggest.