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Nationalisms and Anti-immigrant Sentiment in Spain

2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 15; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13608740903374486

1743-9612

Xavier Escandell, Alin M. Ceobanu,

European Union Policy and Governance

Abstract This article explores links between nationalism and immigrant exclusionism in Spain's 17 Comunidades Autónomas. Drawing from social identity and marginality theories and using Análisis Sociológicos, Económicos y Políticos (ASEP), 1991–2000 data results show that strong national–regional identification is a predictor of anti-immigrant sentiment among Basques, Catalans and Galicians, but not in the remaining Comunidades Autónomas. Basques, Catalans and Galicians who strongly identify with region of residence are more likely to express immigrant exclusionism than those identifying 'as regional as Spanish'. Simultaneously, 'Spanish only' respondents did not yield statistically significant results in favouring exclusionism as compared with those with dual identification across all regions. Keywords: Anti-immigrant SentimentNational–Regional IdentificationComunidades AutónomasSpainHierarchical Linear Modelling Notes [1] During the 1970s and 1980s, pro-independence and nationalist political parties—such as PNV (Partido Nacionalista Vasco), and the separatist HB (Herri Batasuna) in the Basque Country, as well as the centre-right CiU (Convergència i Unió) and ERC (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya) in Catalonia—became outlets for the expression of alternative nationalisms (Pillars & Keating 2003 Pillars, F. and Keating, M. 2003. Multi-level electoral competition. Regional elections and party systems in Spain. European Urban and Regional Studies, 10(3): 239–255. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). [2] In the year 2001, Madrid with 22.5 per cent, Catalonia with 19.3 per cent, Valencia with 15.2 per cent and Andalucía with 10.7 per cent had the largest presence of foreign-born people. In other autonomous communities, such as the Balearic Islands (five per cent), Canary Islands (seven per cent), Murcia (four per cent), Galicia (two per cent) and the Basque Country (two per cent), the proportion of the foreign-born in relation to the native population is smaller. [3] CIS (Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas) data indicate that 39 per cent of citizens in the Basque Country, 37 per cent in Catalonia and 18 per cent in Galicia think of their Comunidad as a nation rather than a region, compared to eight per cent in Navarra and six per cent in the Balearic Islands (de la Calle & Miley 2008 De la Calle, L. and Miley, T. J. 2008. Is there more assimilation in Catalonia than in the Basque Country? Analyzing dynamics of assimilation. European Journal of Political Research, 47(6): 710–736. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). [4] We obtained CFI and NFI values greater than 0.95 and RMSEA values smaller than or equal to 0.06, which are indicative of acceptable model-fitting. These results are available upon request. [5] In the Hierachical Linear Modelling (HLM) models, apart from time, the two regional-level measures are grand-mean centred. [6] The formula used is: (total random effect unrestricted – total random effect restricted)/total random effect unrestricted.