It's 6pm, and Nadia is navigating the traffic as fast as she can. She just finished work and picked her daughter up from school, but she has to hurry: two women are expecting her in an hour for a private English class. Between her work, her daughter and her other activities, her day to day life is not easy.

Mahmoud* is 28 years old. The young man is not very tall but well-built and clean-cut, which comes in handy in his line of work: smuggling petrol.

The phone never stops ringing. To have a conversation with Chedli*, you have to be patient and accept that you will be interrupted every five minutes. Chedli, 51, is a car parts dealer in Tunis who runs three shops, including a wholesale outlet.

When Mejdi arrived in Paris in September 2019, he carried with him a suitcase, 6,900 euros, and a heavy weight on his conscience: to be able to study in France, he had mortgaged his family home. Veiled behind his sense of humour and good mood, the young man hides a great fragility linked to his financial precariousness.