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With a focus on refugees in Western Europe, this paper seeks to establish refugees in their country of exile/settlement as social types distinct from labour migrants. It looks at the notion of ethnic groups and their strategies as a theoretical tool for better understanding refugees. The refugees' positioning within the structure of conflict of their country of origin is posited as a determining factor of their modes of settlement. It is possible to find two large categories:1. Odyssean refugees: refugees who nurtured a collective project in the land of origin and took it with them in the land of exile.2. Rubicon refugees: refugees who did not partake in a collective project oriented toward the homeland or who have forsaken it.

This article examines the interaction of women from Muslim communities with British majority society, the ethnic group and the Muslim group to ascertain enabling factors and obstacles to their autonomisation. It explores how the women navigate through the tensions underpinning the three reference groups to develop their life plan in the private and public space. The empirical research included Touraine’s methodology of sociological intervention.

Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2005 978-1-4039-9831-6