Based on observations of the behavior of a group of Turkish émigrés in both France and Turkey, this article examines the system of interdependent relations between these émigrés and their relatives and village neighbors in Turkey and Europe. This system, a source of cohesion but also conflict between the concerned parties, depends on how those who stay manage the absence of those who leave. Recurrent interrogations on the presence or absence of émigrés in their backgrounds do not account for the complexity of relations between parties. The very lack of an answer to this question is what characterizes the émigrés’ situation ; it is the key to understanding their behaviors in the places they to go as well as those they leave, and more broadly what emigration means to them.