This edited volume gathers contributions by young scholars interested in migratory flows and minorities in the southern and eastern Mediterranean between the 19th and 20th centuries. Without claiming to be exhaustive, it aims to deepen our understanding of the variations of the colonial hierarchy, studying the spaces of contact between the populations involved in the Mediterranean colonial system. Political refugees, marginalised people and foreigners connected cities like Istanbul, Alexandria, Tunis and Melilla. These connections shaped regional networks beyond national, colonial and imperial borders, too often considered self-sufficient categories of analysis. A look at mobility in the imperial Mediterranean sheds light on the connection between migration and colonialism.