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ABSTRACT
The Portuguese city of Amadora hosts the first national registry of an immigrant Intangible Cultural Heritage to this day: the Kola San Jon celebration in the self-built neighbourhood of Alto da Cova da Moura. Many other practices, events, manifestations, and arts could be recognised as immigrant cultural heritage in this city, yet only a few are indeed recognised and supported by the municipality. Through the analysis of four ‘vignettes’, I suggest that municipalities shape a soft policy for immigrant integration by harnessing such apolitical, folklore traditions celebrated by the various immigrant groups present in the city as part of its city branding strategy and policy internationalisation. In other words, cultural heritage is exploited to serve purposes other than communal tradition, to promote the city’s profile. To that aim, this article examines local migrant cultural heritage policies in relation to urban development using the concept of ‘intercultural heritage’ as a critique. By intercultural heritage, I mean heritage practices that are adopted by public institutions to rebrand and legitimise their immigration agenda in cities with a very heterogenous demographic.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
2 Sankofa is led by Dina Furtado, her daughter, and choreographer Janine. It is named for a Ghanaian migratory bird. Sankofa performs around Europe, but are not paid for their appearances at this festival.
3 The Plan mentions two other activities of ACMJ in the section related to culture. First, the Batuque and its famed women players, the Finka Pé. The group was also featured in a series of videos edited for the ‘rumourless city’ methodology mentioned in the introduction. Second, the Kova M Festival, which is described in the Plan as an ‘intercultural festival’.
4 The project’s last social media post was in September 2019, a few months before the declaration of the state of emergency in Portugal, following the spread of Covid-19.