ABSTRACT
In summer 2015, precarious migrants, mainly from the Horn of Africa and Asia, sought protection underneath an elevated metro line at La Chapelle, in the northeast of Paris. Dozens of tents, cardboard boxes and mattresses precariously accommodated several hundreds of protesters. From the moment the government intervened and broke up the makeshift camp, the situation, previously perceived as a humanitarian emergency, became increasingly contentious. This chapter scrutinizes the processes of political mobilization in the most disadvantageous contexts. It traces the visible and invisible acts of resistance by precarious migrants, incubated in autonomous spaces, such as makeshift camps and squats, where the interaction of migrants and supporters mobilized resources and temporarily created visible sites of contention.
