The article discusses the adolescent opportunity structures of young immi-
grants in Germany with regard to enabling or preventing of individual de-
velopmental and educational processes. The challenges young immigrants
have to face during their twofold transformation process are discussed and
the resources and obstacles involved studied against the background of the
empirical results of a bi-national study. A case study of a young, university-
enrolled ‘Spätaussiedlerin’ from Russia is used to reconstruct how the mi-
gration conditions of the family in question and its socio-psychological
coping capacities may influence the experiences of the young adolescent
with the German society and the opportunities and risks in adolescent de-
velopment processes that have to be dealt with.