The experience of diasporas affords us with a paradigm for understanding contemporary societies confronted with discourse on globalization, networks, the social link and the return to nationalism. From 1966 to 1992, the French public radio service broadcast a series of programmes for immigrants which, throughout those years, became a key reference in the construction of the social dynamics of the Portuguese community. Drawing on the content of a few programmes and letters from listeners, the article identifies the various forms of reception during those years, thus outlining a genealogy of the public. At the intersection of different interpretative frameworks, the evolution of that public was marked by important moments in reception. Each such moment was characterized by a question of identity - the image of oneself and of the other person, the way one perceives others and oneself; an identity which, like reception, was polychrome and sedimentary.