This article studies the hardships faced by families seeking asylum or refugees living in collective accommodation centers (CHC) in Geneva. The objective is to capture the experiences and experiences of these families of their reception in an institutional accommodation system, the wait for housing and the successive moves that are imposed on them. The schooling conditions of the children of these asylum-seeking and refugee families are also at the heart of our analysis insofar as the living conditions in the CHC, the successive moves and the decisions of the migration and educational policies have an impact on their school integration.