When 20 year-old Fatima Is offered temporary work in a cleaning firm to break the long refuse collector strike, she doesn’t think twice. It might be her chance to come out of the shadows and get her papers. She is willing and intelligent, has learned French quickly and becomes known for her energy and her organizational skills. Thrilled with these early successes, she buys herself a computer. Through the social networks that constitute the Internet, she becomes the most integrated, the most connected of women. By 2011, Fatima has reached her goal. She has an online network consists of 1251 direct relationships and more than 40 000 indirect ones. Her connections are excellent, so she can act in a very efficient manner. She is always the first to tell people when a new job is available (except when she takes it herself), to take her turn guarding the webcams installed by local inhabitants to ensure that they are being watched, to evaluate lectures given on the forums in which she participates, on highly selective classification, and on global cuisine. The network gives her a lot back: when she found herself between jobs, she was taken from her home and brought to the airport – just one message from her mobile brings her two lawyers, a petition with more than 300 000 signatures in two days, and the attention of numerous local media. And there she is, with her resident’s smart card and a six-month visa.

The perseverance of Fatima and many others pays off at the beginning of 2016. The state, incapable of regulating social life by any other means, decides to use social networks to grant rights, try out its policy of life-long learning, organize public debate, and keep an eye on potential delinquents. Fatima becomes a permanent resident. At the age of 30, she can start a family, but she is concerned: Ahmed, a recent arrival from Somalia whom she loves dearly, has no job. Would he lower her rank? Fatima uses her network to find him training as a prosthetic technician, and, once he’s done, a job. Ahmed wouldn’t really mind having a bit more time to himself, or to hang with friends, but he’s been taken care of by Fatima’s network.

Five years and two children later, Fatima’s problem is the babysitter, Anne. She is a formidable woman, the kids love her, she’s doing really well at school, and that’s the problem. Her presence has enabled her to extend her network beyond the ethnic circle to which she was basically confined. Should she support Anne and help her make her own way in the relational networks, at the risk of losing the link? Youth is so often ungrateful… it’s an ethical choice, of course, but it’s also an economic one. We can trust that she’ll make the right decision…