‘I Slashed My Mom's Car Tires So We Wouldn't Have to Go Back to Germany’: (Non)Belonging and Mobility Among Descendants of Poles in Germany

ABSTRACT Despite growing scholarly interest in youth mobility, research among the descendants of migrants often focuses on travel between their country of residence and their parents' country of origin. This limited perspective risks obscuring the interconnections between different forms of mobility and their influence on individuals' lives. Drawing on autobiographical interviews with individuals raised by Polish parents in Germany, this article explores their varied transnational practices in relation to (non)belonging. While a growing body of literature addresses challenges faced by Eastern European migrants, their descendants receive less scholarly attention. Often perceived as ‘invisible’ due to assumptions of seamless integration, they nonetheless encounter stigma and exclusion. This study demonstrates how movements across different places and social contexts positioned participants in a liminal space of non‐belonging and contributed to the devaluation, rejection, or romanticization of their connection to their parents' homeland. It argues that transnational mobility both reinforced non‐belonging and served as a way of coping with it. By centring non‐belonging, the study identifies the specific processes that led to it and its impact on life decisions.