The paper will discuss the theoretical framework and first results of the ongoing research project “Transnational Education and Social Positioning between Brazil and Europe” (Fürstenau 2015). Social inequality in the Brazilian society and poverty are important reasons for migration between Brazil and Europe since the 1980s, but at the same time, there is labour migration of qualified employees from social elites (Evans et al. 2013). In the research project, educational careers and social positioning are explored from the theoretical perspective of transnational social fields (Levitt and Glick Schiller 2004). Interconnections between spatial and social mobility are explored by analysing educational careers in transnational families. The frame of analysis takes into account the impact of class on educational strategies, as well as the interaction of class with gender and racialisation processes in educational contexts. Access to the field was gained by joining the activities of a Brazilian migrant organisation in a German city. To capture the networks of selected transnational families, the genealogical method is employed (Beer 2011). Ethnographic field research (participant observation, interviews) is conducted in places in Brazil, Germany and if useful in other European countries. From the perspective of the families, interconnections between a) migration decision-making and transnational family organisation, b) social positioning and c) educational strategies are reconstructed. In addition to this agency-oriented approach, particular educational institutions that turn out to be important for the families’ educational orientations are investigated. The study connects the micro level of the individual families with the meso level of educational institutions and asks in how far and in which ways the transnational agency of the families interacts with the status quo of institutions (Faist et al. 2013). It will thus contribute to the development of the theoretical concept of transnational educational spaces, taking into account perspectives on transnationalisation ‘from above’ and ‘from below’ (Smith and Guarnizo 1998).

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