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As a subjective belief in common origins in many parts of the world, ethnicity often arouses in those who claim it as in those who reject it the idea of a totality of being. With migrations, how is this belief perpetuated across time and space? This article deals with this question through the example of Sereer migrants’ associations in Dakar and Île-de-France met between 2012 and 2014. Our observation shows that migrants’ associations, in search of social integration in their new areas of settlement, mobilize the same ethnicity considerations, but adjust them to the requirements of their national environment, and the social circumstances of the association members, to promote selected elements of their ethnicity that are consistent with their objective of social integration. Whether salient or veiled, ethnicity proves to be one dimension among other elements of social experience, both dependent on and transforming such social experience at the same time.