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Group homes that receive adolescents from urban housing projects are presented here as places of contact between two cultures, or rather of the clash between two cultures. Educators must create structural connections between the world of adolescents and that of education and work in order to transform the culture clash into a cultural crossroads. This implies a restructuring of the institutional setting. The placement of a youth in a group home is considered here as a situation similar to migration. A different and complementary reading is offered here without negating the relevance of the usual interpretation of transgressive adolescent behavior as symptomatic. These behaviors are an attempt by adolescents to preserve their belonging in the world they come from, and more generally, to deal with a conflict of norms. The example of a runaway illustrates this argument.