Migration has become an important phenomenon in the contemporary world. In receiving countries, language policies have been put into place to offer migrants education in the national language, in order to give them tools to communicate with and to create a feeling of belonging to the local community. These policies claim to be integration policies; however, they are frequently based on a concept of languages disconnected from the notions of knowledge, culture, politics and power. Languages are shaped in a specific global order and in local practices, in which power relationships that respond to a political, social and economic world system are enmeshed. This paper uses "key-ideas" constructed from data generated in classroom observations and open-ended interviews in Padova, Italy and São Paulo, Brazil as theory promoting insights, and also reflects on the concepts of language, nation and integration. I will engage in a dialogue with the readers, stimulating reflection on encounters with the "other" and on the implications of actions when situated in contexts that are based on a homogenous concept of language, nation and culture. Moreover, through the theorization of coloniality, this article aims to offer a diversified reading of these encounters, suggesting that a process of subordination of the other is put into place by hierarchizing languages and their epistemic meanings. Together with theory, some questions will be offered to stimulate readers in the process of developing their own pedagogical activities.