Abstract
While the question of migration intermediaries is crucial to understand the processes of certain international mobilities, the literature on the subject is largely English speaking, and French-language studies remain both rare and sparse. This topical collection brings together texts that focus on the figure of intermediaries in order to grasp both their theoretical roots and their empirical advances. The contributions gathered here offer a fresh look at the place and work of intermediaries. They show that there is no real segmentation of roles, and that certain actors are likely to perform different, sometimes antagonistic, functions. The three main themes of this topical collection illustrate this ambivalence and blurriness, whether in the experience of passage, where we see intermediaries taking on different roles, in the social mobility made possible by intermediary work, or in the practice of law by analyzing their relationship to the State and public policies.