The social starting point of this presentation is the long summer migration in Germany (Bialas 2023), during which it would have been almost impossible to provide infrastructural support to refugees without the help of volunteers. The surge in civic engagement fostered what became known as the "welcome culture" (see Fleischmann & Steinhilper, 2017). However, this term is both commonplace and problematic, as it can obscure the continuities of social, political, and legal exclusion of migrants in Germany and reinforce the consequential distinction between desired and undesired migration (Schaefer, 2022) Against this background, this paper presents the research project "Social Mentoring in the Context of Flight and Asylum" (see Bauer et al., 2024; see Crijn & De Cuyper, 2022, p. 7, which provides a definition of social mentoring). The first focus is on the state of research in Germany on voluntary work for and with refugees and asylum seekers (see tom Dieck & Rosen, 2024). The second focus is on the initial findings of a grounded theory analysis (Charmaz, 2014) that examines three different actor perspectives and different forms of social mentoring: • University students who perceive common ground in critical service learning with their mentees (based on 11 interviews, 29 portfolios, and three group discussions with a total of 8 students), • A mentee who takes a pragmatic view of hierarchical structures in mentoring relationships (n=1), and • Professionals who emphasize the importance of setting boundaries in social mentoring (n=7). Preliminary findings show that mentors and their accompanying professionals navigate tensions between the state and civil society, facing paradoxes where volunteering can reinforce state interests by contributing to refugees' governability, while balancing solidarity-based support with depoliticised, charitable practices that risk perpetuating paternalistic structures. While power asymmetries persist even in relationships framed as friendships, mentees generally express appreciation for the support they receive and value the personal connections formed within mentoring relationships, taking a pragmatic view of asymmetries. Finally, we will explore these findings in the context of future research directions and their implications for the development of more inclusive and critical social mentoring programs.

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