Catalonia, land of citizens

I am reading these days, a little astonished, formal declarations and positions from the left, including from political leaders of the current direction of ERC, regarding the issue of immigration present in our country and the presumed risks and problems that arise from it. Let me say, from the outset, that I do not share the attitude that can be discerned nor the concreteness of the argumentation that is clearly presented.

As for the attitude, it can be summarized as "there isn't enough room for everyone here." The starting point is obvious, of course there isn't enough room for everyone, but the implicit message is "there are already too many people, we already have too much immigration." Some questions immediately come to my mind. Why do we need to establish an optimal figure for immigration that assures us the dreamed-of balance of prosperity and social cohesion? What would be the maximum migration we could theoretically admit? Is the quantity or percentage of immigrant population in itself what puts Catalan identity at risk?

My answer is equally clear: there is no optimum or maximum that we should want to predetermine. The social cohesion and balance of Catalan society will depend on public policies of the present and future as much as on the changes in the productive model that we decide and implement. Catalan identity has been throughout history, is right now, and will continue to be in the future, the result of our collective capacity to turn diversity into full citizenship, not of one proportion or another of migrants who arrived before or after.

Fortunately, the social and economic dynamic of a country like ours is continuous and unstoppable, which does not mean ungovernable or inevitably oriented towards any disaster announced by one prophet of doom or another. I affirm that the attitude required from a progressive perspective is exactly the opposite: that is, the search for useful lines of reflection and action to understand and respond to the evident complexity of the current situation. And, subsequently, to shape it into a political project to offer it openly to Catalan society, as a commitment of action to be shared with all citizens.

In any case, denying/rejecting reality or, even worse, uncritically assuming the stereotypes, half-truths, or catastrophic hypotheses that various right-wing parties (and certain economic and social sectors) have managed to make credible and acceptable to a large part of the citizenry, including, precisely, significant parts of the electorate that have so far supported one party or another on the left, does not seem like the best option.

If we talk about attitudes, then, the message is clear: let's move from rumor to data, from denunciation to proposal, from grumpy complaints to self-demanded empathy, from fear of "the other" to open dialogue, from "everything is going badly" to prejudice-free acceptance of real complexity, from unquestionable stereotypes to objective knowledge.

Regarding the content of the aforementioned political and economic argumentation, I am surprised, or perhaps not so much, by the almost total coincidence of the same political leaders with some of the approaches presented in the "Informe Fènix". An argument that can be summarized in a forecast that is taken as indisputable: if more and more immigrants continue to arrive, Catalonia will not be able to cover the cost of the basic public services that this would imply. Therefore, it is added, we cannot admit the evolution towards a country of 10 million people.

Informe Fènix. An argument that can be summarized in a forecast that is taken as indisputable: if more and more immigrants continue to arrive, Catalonia will not be able to cover the cost of the basic public services that this would imply. Therefore, it is added, we cannot admit the evolution towards a country of 10 million people.

Once again, obvious truths are mixed with erroneous conclusions. The supposed imbalance between contributions and costs of immigration is entirely debatable. Firstly, because the eventual difference affects both equally, immigrants and native workers, all those who receive the low wages that the current production model imposes and that everyone says they want to transform.

But let's go beyond the small, prejudice-laden focus on immigration: the supposed imbalance disappears, even in the short term, if we consider the real set of taxes generated, company profits, and the present and future effect on the global volume of wealth generated and on the sustainability of the pension system. Including, of course, not only the essential increase in real wages but also demographic parameters as relevant as the birth rate or the progressive aging of Catalan society. In this regard, it is appropriate to recall two very different magnitudes, but which also define us:

—The density (inhabitants/territory) of Catalonia is below that of, for example, the Basque Country or Holland.

—The population over 65 years of age in Catalonia has increased by 800,000 people between 2002 and 2025.

My conclusion is clear: we don't need to chase any figure, but we do need more citizens. Our collective responsibility is precisely to form the necessary alliance between institutions and civil society to give consistency, horizon, and real results to an ambitious citizenship policy aimed, now, at the more than 8 million Catalans we already are.

It is about doing everything we know is possible, including under current conditions and without yet having the resources that legitimately belong to us, to end up being a country of men and women recognized as subjects endowed with freedom, education, training, and, at the same time, holders of all the rights and duties that give meaning to the concept of citizenship. 

In any case, a country that generates a global wealth volume of nearly 350 billion euros and has joint public budgets exceeding 50 billion has more than enough capacity to address an ambitious citizenship policy. If we truly aspire to be a complete country, defined by its internal cohesion and by the capacity to positively develop a shared identity as a secular legacy, renewed by the effect, precisely, of the significant enrichment that results from consciously assumed diversity.

Let's not limit ourselves to following the traditional rhetoric of the "land of welcome"; let's finally be a "land of citizens".