In this article, we measure cross border activities of three different categories of migrants in France: international migrants, French overseas department migrants and other “national migrants” (return colonial migrants or return expats). We describe for these three migrant categories a wide range of cross border ties grouped together through factor analysis into three dimensions: sociopolitical, economic and re-migration. Our findings show that all migrants maintain transborder activities, with particular intensity among French overseas migrants. The sociopolitical, economic and re-migration dimensions of cross border activities are also shown to be affected by similar determinants across the three categories of migrants. Building on the unique opportunity offered by the data in comparing national and international migrants, our final analysis points towards some common determinants related to the type of the border between the origin and destination places involved in the migration process.