This thesis assesses the governance of irregular migration and the practicalities of human smuggling in southern Algeria. It looks at the drivers, functionalities and institutions governing irregular migration and human smuggling in Algeria’s south and along its borders with Mali and Niger. After a brief overview of the history of irregular migration in the Sahara, the study analyses the mechanics and instruments through which the Algerian authorities manage irregular migration. It shows that they often attempt to play a balancing act between enforcing a hard security agenda while taking into account the role of the irregular migration economy for borderland people. Moreover, the thesis offers a micro assessment of migrant strategies and smugglers' modus operandi in the villages and cities along Algeria's borders with Mali and Niger, drawing from extensive fieldwork conducted across the region. Human smuggling appears to be a highly 'regulated activity' through a network of rules shared between the borderland actors. The study presents the features associated with the politics of informal rules of human smuggling, portraying them as contingent on their political and security environment. Finally, the research develops a chapter on the daily lives of migrants in the city of Tamanrasset, Algeria's southern main city, showing how migrants' presence shapes the city's character. It looks in particular at how lodging places, known locally as 'foyers', play an essential role in a migrant's life trajectory. Moreover, the research analyses the complex relationship between smugglers and migrants, notably via the activities of former smugglers ('passeurs') who became owners of 'foyers', playing a critical social role for new migrants.

Notre thèse envisage la production écrite en classe de français comme une pratique scolaire novatrice lorsqu’elle est accomplie au sein d’un espace-atelier et réalisée par l’entremise du jeu, de la mise en scène et du montage d’un spectacle. Pour ce faire, nous avons mis en œuvre une pièce de théâtre, Caligula d’Albert Camus, comme moyen d’enseignement-apprentissage, en l’accompagnant d’une gamme d’outils –dispositif ou unité didactique, vidéo de la pièce, carnet de bord, etc., – favorisant en parallèle une recherche-action sur terrain. Notre travail questionne en outre la possibilité d’une telle expérience menée dans un lieu peu commun, le Sud de l’Algérie, dans l’oasis de Bou-Saâda, et auprès d’un groupe d’apprenants d’une classe de 2e année Langues Étrangères au lycée. Nos objectifs sont de cultiver la compétence écrite chez l’apprenant oasien via l’écriture théâtrale, de lui donner goût à l’apprentissage de la langue et de conférer une certaine dynamique à cet apprentissage en lui permettant de créer et de voir représenté ce qu’il écrit sur le plateau. Au-delà d’une simple acquisition de compétences rédactionnelles, nous avons pu constater des mutations dans les représentations scolaires et sociales de la langue française chez le groupe-apprenant, issu d’une société sudiste conservatrice, chez qui la langue-cible a un statut différent de celui dont elle bénéficie au Nord, ce qui renvoie, par là même, à l’histoire, à la géographie et au plurilinguisme du pays. / Our thesis considers the written production, in a French class, as an innovative school practice when it is accomplished in a workshop space, and realized through the play, staging, and editing of a show. In order to do this, we have implemented a play, Caligula by Albert Camus, as a way of teaching and learning, accompanied by a range of tools - a teaching device or unit, a video of the play, Logbook, etc., - promoting, at the same time, an action research on the ground. Our work also questions the possibility of such an experiment conducted in an unusual place, the South of Algeria, in the oasis of Bou-Saâda, and with a group of learners 2nd Year, Foreign Languages in high school. Our aims are to improve the written skills of the oasis learner through theatrical scripture, to give him a taste to learn the language; and to give a certain dynamic to this learning by allowing him to create and see represented what 'He writes on the set’. Beyond a simple acquisition of editorial skills, we have seen changes in the academic and social representations of the French language in the learner group, from a conservative Southern society, in which the target language has a different status has the respect to the North, evoking the history, geography and multi-linguals of the country.