Evolving Forms of a Local Solidarity Initiative for People on the Move at the French Italian Border The Case of Refuges Solidaires

Abstract

Refuges Solidaires is a local solidarity initiative in Briançon, at the French-Italian border, providing temporary accommodation and support to people on the move. Following a severe financial crisis in 2025, the organisation lost its paid staff and underwent a major restructuring, with its activities becoming largely volunteer-led. This thesis examines how this transformation reshaped the organisation’s everyday functioning, and in particular how it changed the ways in which reception is organised and responsibility for it is distributed and understood.

The research is based on one month of fieldwork combining participant observation with semi-structured interviews. Drawing on a grounded theory approach, the analysis suggests that the shift to a volunteer-based organisation cannot be understood simply as the replacement of professional staff. It involves changes in how knowledge, tasks, decision-making, and responsibilities are distributed within the shelter. Volunteers develop their own forms of expertise and ways of organising care, while the absence of paid staff raises questions around continuity, professionalisation, and accountability.

The thesis uses the case of Refuges Solidaires to examine changing forms of reception at the border, while also considering how everyday practices of solidarity shape the experience and meaning of the border, as well as how they raise questions about responsibility for reception within migration governance.