This article focuses on the role of cultural mediation of symbolic and narrative resources in the resilience process which lies at the heart of the migration experience, including forced migrations. It explains the emergence of “ life tales ” (dits de vie) and their development process through four examples : the life tale of the child as a strawberry ; the life tale of Kiroumi, the child from nowhere ; the life tale of the man with the snake bite ; the life tale of the profession and beauty, of the forces of continuity and discontinuity. Finally, it explores the passage from the use of life tales based on participant’s experience for the collective development of life tales within intercultural groups.