Through personal contacts and press advertisements the workshop leaders, who themselves come from the seven countries/regions concerned, sought out suitable participants for the biography workshops. The most important criterion for participation was an interest in intercultural exchange as well as a readiness to take part in an open group process and to make the results publicly available. The workshop participants were invited to a programme of ten to twelve evenings (autumn 1998 to spring 1999) at which they were prompted to look into the various phases of their histories of migration
In the workshops, a member of the project team together with the workshop animators developed guiding themes through a variety of methodical approaches and creative means:

• group discussions
• collection and presentation of mementos: photos, items from the country or region of origin and from the beginning of their lives in Switzerland, as well as documents (personal records, diaries, work references, passports, and newspaper articles)
• autobiographical writing at home.

What was just as important as the thematically structured part of the workshops ( see the book "Da und fort. Leben in zwei Welten", pp. 18, 35, 46-47, 63, 89, 103-104, 112-113 und 122-123) were the breaks and the unbidden cooperation after the work. Through the informal conversations, additional information  was gathered. The exchanges and the getting-to-know-each-other led to an evergrowing wealth of facets, and allowed buried memories to resurface and joy, sorrow and anger to be relived. In most workshops, serious discussions also arose (gender relations, the life of natives and foreigners together, the significance of language acquisition), which sometimes could hardly be halted. The workshop animators needed considerable skill to return the discussion again and again to real experiences and to the individual migration histories. 

The conversations were recorded on audio tape to document the groups' work and to produce the fundamental content of the book and exhibition. The workshop animators transcribed some of the recordings and produced a souvenir brochure for the workshop participants. All the workshop participants from the seven groups met each other for the first time at the presentation of the brochures at the Zurich Council Office, and themselves received the thanks of the then Council President, Josef Estermann and the representatives of the participating institutions for their efforts and commitment.
 
Brochure list:

Material from the Italian workshop (Italian and German)
compiled by Rosanna Raths-Cappai
Archive number AR 201.158.1 File 1 Swiss Social Archive

Material from the German workshop
compiled by Susanne Gisel-Pfankuch
Archive number AR 201.158.1 File 1 Swiss Social Archive

Material from the Hungarian workshop
compiled by Viktória Tóth
Archive number AR 201.158.1 File 2 Swiss Social Archive

Material from the Serbian workshop (Serbian and German)
compiled by Dejan Mikic
Archive number AR 201.158.1 File 3 Swiss Social Archive

Material from the workshop on Swiss internal migration
compiled by Elisabeth Joris
Archive number AR 201.158.1 File 3 Swiss Social Archive

Material from the Kosovo Albanian workshop
compiled by Hava Shala Gerguri
Archive number AR 201.158.1 File 4 Swiss Social Archive

Material from the Turkish workshop
compiled by Musa Dursun
Archive number AR 201.158.1 File 4 Swiss Social Archive