This essay focuses on the subjective perception and the behaviours connected with health in familiar contests. It considers immigrants as active subjects who perceive and manage their own health. Studying immigrant families’ health we realised that they still are a social group at risk, particularly exposed to insecurity and social exclusion. To study immigrants’ families starting from their family life means a special concern on the intersection between public and private life, and between macro and micro structure. Starting from the reconstruction of a general theory, the author analyses the material collected during her Austrian studies.