This article seeks to understand the role of discourses that integrate the national identity in the adaptation process in boundary conditions of Colombian immigrants in Europe. The approach, start in an ethnographic study of Colombian immigrants for economic reasons in in Bordeaux (France), and Sevilla (Spain), in different periods from 2006 to 2012 and the application of interviews with Colombian migrants in both countries, returned to Pereira, Colombia. The results show that in extreme situations, Colombian immigrants tend to respond to the challenges of the adaptation process, based on national identity discourses that produce a performative effect with favorable implications for the definition of itself, for adaptation to adverse circumstances and to continue the migration project.