Thèse en cours : Associationnisme et immigration : les Espagnols, Italiens et Portugais du Doubs de 1945 à nos jours. Étude des dynamiques sociales et culturelles à travers l'association italienne des Sardes - Su Tirsu, l'association Don Quichotte et l’association Portugaise de Franche-Comté

This dissertation traces the history and evolution of Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese immigrant associations in Besançon from 1945 to the present, in a region where mobility has deeply shaped the economy, urban life, and social ties. Focusing on three cases—the Sardinian circle Su Tirsu, the Spanish-language association Don Quichotte, and the Portuguese Association of Franche-Comté—the study examines how these groups have fostered everyday sociability, cultural transmission, and mediation with public institutions, and how their roles have changed with migration cycles, administrative reforms, and the expectations of younger generations.The aim is twofold: first, to reconstruct the conditions under which these associations were founded and consolidated, showing how they addressed concrete needs for mutual aid, recognition, and learning; second, to follow their organizational and programmatic transformations over several decades in order to assess their contribution to social, economic, and civic integration. The research also analyzes their relationships with the city hall, the prefecture, and consulates; observes how local public policies have shaped their room for maneuver; and links these trajectories to regional demographic and occupational changes, including aging cohorts, feminization of flows, and the rise of student and skilled mobilities.The theoretical framework combines migration systems theory, which situates flows and settlements in the long term; a transnational approach, which illuminates “here-and-there” ties and multiple belongings; French debates on integration and assimilation, which structure civic expectations and controversies; and the theory of voluntary organizations, which helps analyze governance, volunteer management, and conditions for durability. Methodologically, the study weaves together administrative archives from the Doubs subprefecture, local and diasporic press, digital traces, and interviews or informal exchanges, systematically cross-checked to reconstruct long timelines (statutes, committees, venues) and short sequences (crises, reorganizations, relaunches.Findings show that these associations long served as interfaces between immigrant populations and the city: they created convivial spaces, offered language classes, supported sports teams, organized festivities and cultural mediation, and provided symbolic visibility to groups sometimes perceived as discreet. Since the 2000s, however, they have faced significant challenges: delays and conditions attached to subsidies, increasingly complex procedures, volunteer fatigue, closure or loss of emblematic venues, and difficulties renewing leadership and engaging publics whose participation is more intermittent. A shift is thus visible from the “total community center” to more modular, thematic formats—languages, gastronomy, events—alongside the emergence of newer, more targeted associations.The dissertation concludes that long-term viability depends on a solid and open administrative architecture, measured professionalization of key functions, and anchoring in local and transnational networks capable of turning dependency into partnership. Associations remain essential mediators of integration, provided they adjust their repertoires of action to more diversified mobilities and renewed expectations, thereby offering practical guidance for public policy and comparative insights for other French and European cities.