This article highlights the evolution of roles of mother, spouse, provider and person involved in the community in ten Congolese refugee women in Quebec. These women have each experienced a process of prolonged familial separation and subsequent reunification in exile. The principal elements of continuity are: the transmission of values and education strategies for their children, the continuance of a healthy conjugal relationship or the ending of an unhealthy conjugal relationship from the Congo, the economic responsibility of the woman towards her family, and the continuance of community roles in exile. Major elements of change: the pronounced socio-economic fall of the family, the inability to exercise their professions, the atrophy of their social networks, and the deterioration of relations with their extended families in the Congo.