How is foreignness conceived and managed in a border society where the presence of migrants is frequent? How do political limits separate (or unite) two modern States, which are under construction as reflected in social practice? To propose answers to these questions, the present contribution questions the rights which benefit foreigners “of a nation”, coming from the Kingdom of France, within the craft guilds of the Southern Low Countries. Noting the importance of the concept of local membership and of malleability – or even relativity – of foreignness, this contribution updates the historiography of French migrants within the Hispanic Monarchy as much as the studies dedicated to the corporations of the Southern Netherlands.