Integration, Interculturality, Policy-Making and Migration Governance in Peripheral Rural Contexts: A Comparative Study of Ubrique and Grazalema (Sierra de Cádiz)

Non-urban and peripheral areas have become increasingly important sites where migration governance and integration unfold under conditions of uneven state presence, demographic change, and limited institutional capacity. This paper examines how integration, intercultural encounters, and local policy-making take shape in two rural municipalities of the Sierra de Cádiz—Ubrique and Grazalema—which offer distinct yet comparable examples of peripheral governance contexts in southern Spain. Although both localities experience labour-related mobility and internal migration, they operate without the formal infrastructures and policy tools typically associated with urban integration regimes. Drawing on scholarship in local migration regimes, centre–periphery dynamics, and rural interculturality, the study shows that integration in these settings emerges primarily through everyday interactions, informal governance arrangements, and community-level negotiations rather than through structured policies. Ubrique, shaped by its leather industry and reliance on migrant labour, illustrates how integration is embedded in precarious housing markets, informal employment networks, and the improvised coordination efforts of local actors. Grazalema, characterised by demographic decline and seasonal tourism, relies more heavily on social proximity, community solidarity, and civil society actors who mediate cultural differences in the absence of formal policy frameworks. The research employed a mixed-method design, combining quantitative data from INE and IECA–SIMA (2023–2024) with semi-structured interviews conducted with local authorities, social service providers, employers, civil society actors, and migrant community members. These data collectively illuminate the lived experiences of integration and the constraints of governance in peripheral rural contexts. The paper argues that rural-peripheral areas function as dynamic political and intercultural spaces where integration is continuously negotiated, adapted, and contested, offering new conceptual insights that move beyond the traditional urban bias in migration research.