International audienceIn Mexico-City, like in most metropolitan cities, intra-urban residential mobility is the main driving force behind the settlement pattern and reworking of the social division of space. In the colonias populares, illegal settlements which remain an inescapable feature of urban growth, the dull grey aspect of the block-built houses dominates the landscape and poverty is prevalent. However, these characteristics are insufficient to properly grasp these areas, where complex processes of inhabitants’ anchoring are at work. This paper aims to understand the mechanisms of residential anchorage and the relationship between the various forms of anchorage and the socio-spatial changes and developments. Reading the trajectories ...