The privilege (not the right) of being Catalan

Ten days ago, the British Prime Minister announced a change of course in the United Kingdom's immigration policy. Keir Starmer, a 62-year-old lawyer specializing in human rights and a member of the Labour Party (i.e., the left), has presented a series of regulatory changes to regain control of the borders, limit the entry of immigrants, and set conditions to improve the social and working conditions of both locals and newcomers. In short, while recognizing that the country is a diverse nation, Starmer wants to prevent the country from becoming, literally, an "island of strangers."

Starmer's announcement has been interpreted, with too much haste and an obsession with exorcising any symptoms of the far right, as an opportunistic maneuver to meet the electoral expectations of Nigel Farage and his Reform UK party. I don't see it that way. What Starmer is proposing is to guarantee well-being for both immigrants and the rest of the population. And he knows that this cannot be achieved with an indiscriminate open-door policy. The Labour government wants to address homelessness and the deterioration of social services. It believes that knowledge of the country's language is essential not only for integration but also for reducing the risks of exploitation and abuse.

However, in the Catalan reading of Starmer's measures, I seem to see a malicious bias, perceptible in the translation of a central phrase from his speech against social fragmentation. Starmer said: "We are a diverse nation, not an island of strangers". And there are those who have translated the word strangers by foreigners and not, as it should, by strangers. Starmer, starting from a sound analysis of one of the main problems his country—and ours—has, proposes to address the challenge of creating social bonds, and there's no need to see any xenophobic temptation.

But let's put data to Starmer's concern and compare it with Catalonia. In 2023, 906,000 immigrants entered the United Kingdom, with a population of 68.5 million. A similar proportion to those who arrived in Catalonia. Of course, with more than notable differences. Since 2000, the population of the United Kingdom has grown by approximately 16%. In Catalonia, it's more than 26%. In 2023, the British had 14% of the foreign population. Here, those born outside of Catalonia were 37%. Furthermore, the fact that in the United Kingdom, the majority of immigration is European—Poland, Romania—or comes from former colonies with a knowledge of English, such as India or Pakistan, is not insignificant. And, above all, the United Kingdom is a state with full decision-making and control capacity, while immigration policy in Catalonia—often against us—is made by Spain.

In other words, the risk of becoming the "island of strangers" that Keir Starmer points to for the United Kingdom—let's remember: a socialist and human rights expert—in Catalonia must be multiplied by at least three or four. With enormous added challenges such as language displacement caused by immigration that speaks the language of the metropolis and is convinced it doesn't need to know the language of the country; with housing stress caused largely by an economy based on mass tourism with poverty wages; With sustained fiscal plunder unparalleled by any other composite state, and what's more, with no jurisdiction over immigration and border policies.

And, as if that weren't enough, all of this is aggravated in Catalonia by a rhetorical hegemony made up of do-gooder speeches full of misunderstandings, such as that of President Aragonés, who this past Sunday, the antithesis of Starmer, still declared to the ARA that "an exclusionary nation project is the fastest way to cease being a nation." But what does it mean for Aragonés to be "an inclusive nation"? What does he understand by "nation"? Does it mean opening the doors to population growth indiscriminately and unconditionally, as has been done until now? It seems obvious to me that you cannot be an inclusive nation if you cannot offer all your citizens a minimum of well-being and decent working conditions, while being able to demand them—I insist, all citizens—and in return, a firm commitment to the model of society offered to them.

Keir Starmer starts from a fundamental idea. He has said, in relation to the new policy: "This is a clear break with the past and will ensure that settling in this country is a privilege to be earned, not a right." Shouldn't we also be able to say that living in Catalonia—whether one was born there or not—should be a privilege to be earned, and not a right?