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This article presents the results of a cross disciplinary and committed enquiry amongst uprooted teenagers (“adolescents en exil”), who are migrants or of immigrant origin, living in neighbourhoods characterised by poverty in the North West of Brussels. We met them during a participatory observation process over two years, in their neighbourhoods and in their schools where there is a strong immigrant presence. Whilst the capital of Europe is cosmopolitan, it also encompasses serious conflicts between its communities, and is polarised along social and “ethnic” lines. Adolescents, both longer term or more recent migrants, are mostly confined to marginal neighbourhoods and “second zone” schools which are becoming mono cultural. In this context, they develop radical identities around an origin, a phenotype, a level of melanine, shared conditions or parts of a neighbourhood, with moving frontiers. This allows solidarities to build up, as well as a proud identity, but exposes the young people to an exacerbation of territorial conflicts and to gender-based violence. With these young people we developed a space to reflect, individually and collectively, about themselves and about their experiences of the city (life stories, joint interviews in groups and classes). They observe and question the fragmenting of public space as well as the ethnicisation of groups in certain neighbourhoods. They analyse discrimination in school and the social violence that they are faced with. They demonstrate resistance and learning, and are mobilised by any creative opportunities. They uphold their capacity to translate their experience and to acknowledge their mixed origins. Finally, their combined analysis provides us with practical learning for public practice and policy.