This chapter examines two areas of public policy and mobilization corresponding to the defense of the rights of migrants and unemployed people, the latter being one of the pioneer expression of the so-called alter-globalization movement. The analysis suggests that the European Union (EU), even when it constitutes an alternative space for action, is not capable of substantially modifying the balances of power and the inequalities that are part of the national spaces. To a certain extent, a counterexample is provided by the unemployed, who have succeeded in mobilizing massively at EU level over the last few years, something they had not been capable of within the member states.(...)