The thesis indicates that, to make sense of how white South African migrants and their non-migrant kin construct their views about migration from apartheid-based South Africa, it is important to take account of apartheid-based racialization as well as prior histories of displacement and oppression. It demonstrates the need to move beyond globalized notions of the family when researching constructions of the consequences of migration. This includes considering how such constructions inform and are informed by: prior family dynamics; life course changes; gender; whether the relationship under discussion is with a parent, child or sibling; whether the views are expressed by a migrant or non-migrant; and responses to the dismantling of apartheid. It highlights the value of adopting a narrative-based biographical interpretative methodology and combining social constructionist and psychoanalytic ideas when investigating issues that have been under theorized and under researched,are troubling to articulate and concern relationships with people who came to be seen as racialized and/or gendered 'others'.

L’objectif de cette thèse est de comprendre d’une part, le parcours migratoire de femmes d’Afrique subsaharienne vers l’Europe et, d’autre part, leur entrée dans la prostitution, c’est-à-dire les raisons et les facteurs qui les poussent à prendre la décision d’exercer la prostitution. Dans ce travail, j’ai mené une étude empirique avec une méthodologie qualitative basée sur la rencontre, l’échange et la coproduction de savoirs. Des récits de vie ont été réalisés avec des femmes venant principalement de l’Afrique subsaharienne, exerçant ou ayant exercé dans le milieu de la prostitution durant leur parcours migratoire en Allemagne ou en France. Dans l'ensemble, il s'agit d'analyser les tendances qui émergent à partir de cette enquête. / The objective of this thesis is to understand, on the one hand, the migratory trajectory of women from sub-Saharan Africa to Europe and, on the other hand, their entry into prostitution, that is to say, the reasons and factors that were responsible for them making the decision go into prostitution. For this study, I carried out an empirical project using a qualitative methodology based on the encounter, exchange and co-production of knowledge. Individual life stories were shared by women mainly from sub-Saharan Africa, working or having worked in the field of prostitution during their migratory journeys to Germany or to France. Overall, the goal is to analyze the trends that emerge from this study.