In Switzerland, one of the strongest and impenetrable kinds of social boundaries in the field of education is the one between those who consider themselves ‘Swiss’ without any recent immigration history and those with an ascribed ‘immigrant background’, especially if an immigration history is intersectionally intertwined with a low socioeconomic status. This boundary does not only appear among students regarding their different educational chances (e.g. SKBF, 2023), it can also be found among teachers (Mantel, 2017). Teachers who experience being seen as ‘with immigrant background’ often encounter expectations of being particularly committed in supporting marginalised students, to mediate between diverse students or to build bridges between the school and parents with a so-called immigration history (Mantel, 2017; 2024). However, different teachers deal very differently with these expectations, which raises the question of how these differences can be understood more deeply: What are the patterns beneath these differences? Are there any structures that can be regarded as typical? Can particular types be identified that have an explanatory power? This paper refers to research that has been carried out with a qualitative-hermeneutic approach (Glaser & Strauss, 1998 [1967]; Rosenthal, 1995; Schütze, 1983) interrogating 19 primary school teachers in German speaking Switzerland. As theoretical framework, the approach of boundary making by Wimmer (2013) has proven to be highly interesting, especially when combined with considerations of recognition (Honneth, 1995). Three different typical structures could be identified, and they show that there are very distinct ways of dealing with role ascriptions as mediators connected to own vulnerabilities and struggles for recognition (Mantel, 2024).

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