Migración, integración, participación: estrategias de desarrollo local. El caso de la comunidad Búlgara en Valladolid

Abstract

This paper analyses the significance of development strategies in the process of integration of different migrant communities in urban contexts. This is a challenge for the destination societies, since the new habitants should be incorporated in the local contexts. On the basis of the case study of the Bulgarian community settled in Valladolid, we will explore on the one hand the integration process, considering that the public promotion of migrants associations contributes to the development of migrants’ hierarchies based on the negotiation of participation and power rates, and on the other how are they related to the management of the identity of the groups. Therefore, the intercultural discourse promoted by the city council affects the com- munity since they take ownership of its narratives. Accordingly, they radicalize their expressions from the internal homogenization to the external differentiation. Fur- thermore, we will explain the influence of these integration processes in the redefini- tion of centre and periphery in the urban context by the participation of these new social actors in the collective dynamic. Consequently, the migrants’ participation in the urban ritual enables their integration through their contribution to the symbolic construction of town.