Abstract
This article aims at understanding livelihood trajectories of Haitian migrant farm workers and small farmers in Guadeloupe. It questions the processes at play for their resilience/vulnerability. The suggested theoretical grid associates the sustainable rural livelihood framework with an approach in terms of "circulatory-transformative capabilities" inspired by Sen's works. Analyzing capitals and resources' endowment, choices and socioeconomic trajectories, the article questions the room for maneuver of migrants in achieving the kind of life they find valuable. It then gives a central place to individual choices that are constrained by social structures at different scales. The paper addresses the ability of migrants to organize their life and to face hazards. Based on a qualitative survey, two major findings are highlighted. First, migrants mobilize, accumulate, and circulate capitals in a transnational space to pursuit their livelihood strategies. Second, some resources (regularization, access to land and to nonfarm activities) interfere in their trajectories and question their resilience/vulnerability. The results discuss in particular the specific roles of social capital and public policies in securing incomes, a debate that can be useful in terms of public policies to support migrants in reinforcing their livelihoods.