It is difficult to view migratory experience, which is often transnational, within a conventional frame of social memory, such as, for example, that of national history, emblem of the twentieth century. On the other hand the experience of “double absence” makes it difficult for the migrant to feed his personal recollections into a shared memory which can be transmitted to others. For some authors, this processing of personal recollections is a function and necessary aspect of kinship ties This paper will focus on the way new kinds of relatedness are constituted in the country of immigration, allowing for the creation of a new relationship between individual recollections and social memory. Even the anthropologist may sometimes be called upon to contribute to this process.