Precarity and Parenthood

This landmark study follows the Nour family – a Moroccan immigrant couple and their eight French-born children – for more than a decade, offering an intimate and unflinching portrait of migration, resilience and inequality.

Through sustained ethnographic observation and life-story interviews with family members, neighbours, teachers, magistrates and social workers, Catherine Delcroix demonstrates the extraordinary analytical power of the in-depth case study. Drawing on Norbert Elias’ concept of configuration, she illuminates intergenerational and gender dynamics within the family, while revealing how public policy shapes – and often distorts – the lives of those it purports to serve.

A classic text, this book has been translated in several languages but never made available in English until now. It will appeal to anyone who seeks a richer understanding of the immigrant experience – and makes a compelling case for life-story narratives as an indispensable tool in qualitative social research.