Scotland is no longer a mirror for Catalonia

Barcelona"After what happened in Scotland and the United Kingdom, the Catalan Process continues and moves forward. We feel strengthened by the good example of a European democracy that has allowed voting. This is the way forward." These were the words of Artur Mas in November 2014, a few days after the November 9th referendum, the prelude to the referendum that Carles Puigdemont would lead three years later. Since then, and throughout the peak years of the Process, Catalonia has repeatedly reflected the Scottish case. Eleven years after that moment, the reality of the country and the issues occupying the Catalan political agenda distance him from the man who was a role model.

In the pact for the investiture of Salvador Illa, the ERC (Republican Revolutionary Party) and the PSC (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) agreed to promote a National Convention that would foster a "broad debate" to address "the resolution of the political conflict" between Catalonia and the Spanish state. Although Illa has repeatedly stated that he wants to comply with all agreements, for now this pact has not been implemented, and the president has put aside issues that seek to bring political conflict back to the forefront. At the national level, he has focused on measures related to language and culture. Furthermore, the pro-independence parties have placed issues such as funding, commuter rail, and migration at the center of debate and negotiations with the state.

In this shift in issues occupying the activities of the pro-independence parties, Scotland is quickly falling behind, especially in the area of language, since beyond Scottish Gaelic, there is no conflict in this regard. However, there is a distinct accent, which UOC political science professor and Scotland expert Núria Franco warns is "very important" for Scots when it comes to accepting whether an English speaker is Scottish or not. However, in the case of migration, "no one expects you to adopt an accent, but rather to speak a language," she points out.

The immigration issue

The migration challenge is also a topic currently at the center of the agenda in Catalonia, after Junts (Junt's Party) reclaimed immigration powers from the Spanish government and due to the country's population growth, making it attractive to migrants from both the Global North and the Global South. But the reality in this area with respect to Scotland is "totally the opposite," according to Marc Sanjaume, a professor of political science at UPF specializing in national and ethnic conflicts. Franco portrays that, despite both countries having similar natural growth rates, Scotland does not attract immigration, and Sanjaume rightly places talent attraction programs as one of the country's priorities to counteract the fact that it is a "less attractive" nation economically and labor-wise for immigrants compared to England.

In the political sphere, the Scots have a more open stance toward immigration than the British. Franco attributes this to two reasons: on the one hand, because unlike in Catalonia, in Scotland "immigration is not a challenge" and, therefore, "it's difficult to become racist when you have no one to shout at." On the other hand, because one of the pillars of Scottish independence and the Scottish National Party (SNP) is "that Scotland has different political values than the rest of the United Kingdom," which makes the national project inherently "rather progressive and open." In fact, Alba, the party founded by former SNP leader Alex Salmond, which advocates more restrictive social policy, has not won a single seat in the various elections it has run in, and the few public representatives it currently retains are SNP members who have switched parties. It remains to be seen to what extent xenophobic rhetoric permeates the Catalan independence parties and whether the far right increases its representation in upcoming elections, which would further differentiate it from Scotland.

The similarities also blur in the use of non-transferred powers. Here, despite not having powers in certain areas, there is an attempt to influence them: "Catalonia may not have powers over migration, but it uses education, cultural, and health policies to develop an integration policy," Franco explains. In contrast, in the British case, "the borders are more clearly defined," and on an issue reserved for London, Edinburgh does not address it. However, that does not prevent Scotland from occasionally requesting the transfer of new powers, as Catalonia is also currently doing.