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Teachers and parents who join the Réseau éducation sans frontière (RESF – Network for education without borders) aim to express their indignation against the policies the French State adopts concerning children and young people who are in the country illegally. This indignation cannot be given as the explanation for their mobilization, and instead should in itself be made the object of analysis. This is what this paper does, on the basis of observations and interviews with activists from a départemental branch of the RESF. The study first shows that the social determinants of their indignation (and of their collective mobilization) can be found in their backgrounds and socialization, which gave them critical dispositions, an inclination to protest, and sensitivity to issues related to discrimination and schooling. An attachment to the educational institution to which they owe their social mobility, a critical mood that stems from their precocious rejection of their religious upbringing, the influence of family-inherited models of disobedience, or a painful experience of otherness, can be found in the backgrounds of many of those activists. The paper then shows that their indignation is expressed differently according to the way by which the activists joined the cause (whether it was perceived in general terms or particularized based on specific people) and their previous skill level as activists. It also shows that maintaining involvement in the movement requires specific emotional work, which is one of the main components of learning to be an activist.