Abstract
Guadeloupe left its status as a colony to become a French department with the “assimilation” law of 19 March 1946. Twenty years later, the promise of republican equality associated with this change is largely disappointed. Affected by the events of “May ‘67”, when the French state violently repressed demonstrations in Pointe-à-Pitre, the generation at the origin of the medico-social sector left to study in France in a tense political context. An analysis of the educational and professionalization paths of this generation, in connection with its political-union commitment, sheds light on the social and identity issues involved in the structuring of this sector.