This article proposes a critical review of the social construction of young people who are neither in employment, education or training (NEET) as a category of public action and as a response to immobility and to youth poverty. After defining activation in relation to a governmentality regime, it highlights the conditions of origin and extension of this category. This critical feedback makes it possible to identify some prescriptions and normative issues of activation policies and intervention practices that target today’s young NEET. This article also makes it possible to question the effectiveness of these policies and practices in terms of mobilization, access to employment and the fight against poverty.