International audienceThe article argues that the complexity of circular migrations can best be analysed by using the concept of “migratory projects”, since it catches various social, spatial and temporal dimensions of circular migrations and thus also allows to capture different social processes on different geographical scales. The case study of Tuaregs (Bankilaré, Niger) shows how the concept not only allows to study the characteristics of these movements but also the tensions that arise within the social group(s) from which migrants originate. From the perspective of those who move migration is a strategy to evade poverty on a local scale. Understood as a project, migration can be shown to involve generational conflicts, and more genera...