Abstract

This article aims to highlight the intersections between different forms of marginalisation at work in the management of migration and homelessness. Usually, for analytical purposes, these two phenomena are presented as distinct from each other, although the commonalities – in the experiences of the subjects, in the techniques of the management, in the forms of violence, in the agency of individuals – are several and relevant. Hence the reflection we propose as a contribution to the literature on homelessness and migration. Drawing on three ethnographic doctoral theses conducted in different contexts, the theoretical link between violence and vulnerability is explored. The aim is to analyse human suffering in its political dimension, the different anatomies of power enacted and experienced in everyday life. The article will also analyse the taxonomies of vulnerability and violence that have been established to regulate human complexity through the creation of categories, the techniques of managing mobility through borders and the margins of agency that are implemented on a daily basis by the actors of research. Finally, some concluding remarks will be presented on the traces in the corporeal and concrete dimension of the effects of structural violence.