In New Caledonia, the political conflict between two opposing tendencies has become a real structure of representation and action, permanently counteracting social cohesion and the possibility for the country to move towards a possible "national" unity. This conflict intersects with separations between distant cultural universes considered incompatible, competing material interests and economic and social inequalities. Based on an ethnographic study about ordinary sociability in a peri-urban neighborhood of the Grand Nouméa, I will examine the way to invest habitat and social relations in the daily life of the inhabitants, which are from multiple origins and mainly of modest conditions. A local society has been unified by common characteristics and ideals that counteract the divisive tendencies that constitute family retreat, culturalhyb gaps and political tensions inherent to the country. As an intermediary between the "bush" and the city, this neighborhood is experienced as emblematic of a specifically Caledonian way of life, which is based on rural and Oceanic references while simultaneously rejoining universal forms from resistance and counter-models to urban uniformity. Hybridization and "coculturation" contribute to the conception of the country in its unity and cohesion, but they are clashed with the complexity of New Caledonia: interbreeding, convergence of lifestyles and cultural recognition on one hand, political status quo on the background of colonial disputes, economic and social disparities on the other hand. The expression of the feeling of belonging thus highlights the persistence of two opposing national perspectives and its declination into a Kanak/non-Kanak boundary which is difficult to cross.