Paper short abstract:

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Paper long abstract:

During the migration process, immigrants have to wait within the frontiers of Europe.One of which is the city of Melilla, a colonial conquest of the old Spanish Empire in Africa. Immigrants of various origins live in a special Centre called C.E.T.I. (Centro de Estancia Temporal de Immigrants) where they have to stay until the government decide if they can be expelled to Spain or to their home country. My work analyses the construction of identities through the study of their everyday life,living in groups, their rituals and socialization process of these immigrants blocked within this frontier of Europe. I have started working with immigrants who are resident in the C.E.T.I in different ways: interviewing them with the aim to observe their lives and analyse their identity construction process, and how they have rebuilt their lives within the frontier. Many authors analyse immigrants' identities and in particular I have been inspired by Abdelmalek Sayad's theory of "double absence" and Alessandro Dal Lago's theory of immigrant as "not person" .