In Germany – as in other European countries - migrant students at school perform at levels significantly lower than their native peers (OECD 2006, p. 2). One strategy to reduce this disadvantage, discussed by educational policy, is the recruitment of teachers from minority ethnic groups since proportionally to migrant students the overall number of migrant teachers is still very low. The argument put forward by educational policy is that migrant teachers have specific resources due to growing up bilingually and biculturally. Thus it is expected that they will be able to use these resources as professional competencies to enhance migrant students’ academic success. However, it neglects the fact that migrant teachers who completed or at least partially passed their educational career in Germany have become acquainted with an educational system in which cultural and linguistic norms of the majority are transmitted (Gogolin 2002; Ross 2003). 
Research in the field of recruitment of ethnic minority teachers focusing on widening participation has been carried out in Great Britain, Canada and the US since the 1980s whereas it is just at the starting point in Germany. Even though international research shows some effects of teacher recruitment from ethnic minority groups on the school performance of students from the same ethnic group, relevant findings emphasize entry barriers, unequal treatment, discrimination and racism experienced by migrant teachers in academic teacher training and in the labour market (Carrington & Tomlin 2000; Cunningham & Hargreaves 2007; Lynn & Lewis 2009; Strasser & Steber 2010).
The proposed research starts at this point and focuses on future migrant teachers, a group that research in intercultural education has hardly ever addressed. This group is particularly interesting under the perspective of a transnational Europe. Our aim is to contrast the educational policy discussed above and its unquestioned belief in “integration and social cohesion through specific recruitment” with perspectives voiced by migrant students in teacher education at university (Lengyel & Rosen forthcoming). We argue that especially in times of “superdiversity” (Vertovec 2007, p. 2) binaries such as “migrant” – “local” fail to capture the complexity of negotiating identities as well as the great variety of cultural and linguistic repertoires. Our research questions concern the discrimination experiences of students in the education system not only as a student at school but also as a teacher trainee. Furthermore, we are interested in their views of their role and function as a teacher in school. Precisely, our questions are: Which kind of discrimination have they experienced in the field and which role does language play in it particular? How do they anticipate their ascribed roles as mediators of language and culture? Which chances and barriers do they see?
We assume that the monolingual and -cultural habitus (in sensu Bourdieu) experienced in educational institutions – either as students or teacher trainees – is reflected in their experiences of discrimination. We expect that the experienced monolingual and -cultural habitus leads to ambivalent attitudes towards a professional handling of their own multilingualism (and cross-cultural competencies).

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