Research framework: The study is at the crossroads of two theoretical fields: the condition of the exile and the sociology of the family.

Objective : The article aims to analyze the family reconfigurations involved in asylum application procedures.

Methodology: A two-year ethnographic field study (2018-2019) was carried out in the Centre d’hébergement d’urgence pour migrants (CHUM) and the Centre de premier accueil (CPA) managed by an association. The families housed there come mainly from Albania, Afghanistan, Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia.

Results: A birth, the formation of a couple or even a separation are all events that place exiled families in anthemic situations, between the stability generated by these family events, which implies a projection into the future, and the insecurity of asylum procedures, which forces them to remain stuck in the present. These family events are used in different ways by migrant families: either as a means of emancipation, as a factor of “vulnerability” in an attempt to improve living conditions, or as experiential knowledge.

Conclusions : The temporalities of asylum procedures and of family changes clash to the point of generating situations of great instability. Furthermore, the superimposition of statuses (that of asylum seekers, woman and mother) leads to paradoxes and even feelings of ambivalence in the daily lives of these women housed in centres.

Contribution : Looking beyond the realities of France, the article reflects on the experiences of women asylum seekers in shelters from the perspective of their family projects. In this way, we are able to move away from the asylum procedures imposed on exiles, and graps subjectivity through family changes. Following on the sociology of the family and the emergency context, we understand how families are constructed, and how links are made and broken.

• migrant shelter
• exile
• ethnography
• France
• subjectivity
• family reconfiguration

https://journals.openedition.org/efg/17941#article-17941