Old meets New: Immigrants’ Attraction to Regionalism in Catalonia and Bavaria

(1)

i

Old meets New: Immigrants’ Attraction to Regionalism

in Catalonia and Bavaria

Jaime Hurtado Crespo

Master Thesis of Political Science International Relations

Graduate School of Social Sciences University of Amsterdam

Thesis Supervisor: Dr Mike Medeiros

Second Reader: Dr Daphne van der Pas

Student number: 11269847

Date of submission: 5th_{June 2020}

(2)

ii

Abstract

The highly globalised world that we live in has changed our way of understanding a nation-state. Due to the increased global mobilisation, it is now more often the case that citizens of nation-states have different identities and nationalities. This reality has in some regions had an especially interesting impact. In regions where historically there have been different identities existing, the higher arrival of immigrants opens the discussion of which identity the immigrants feel attached to. The regionalist movement might see an opportunity or threat in these newcomers since the immigrants’ political orientation will contribute to shaping the future of the region. This paper has studied this matter by asking, to what extent immigrants support regionalism. The research was done through a mixed-method approach that has analysed the cases of Catalonia and Bavaria. Interviews with the representatives of the most important regionalist parties of both regions were conducted and pre-existing survey data was analysed. The results show that immigrants are equally attracted by regionalist parties as non-immigrants in both cases. Meaning that the degree of inclusivity of a regionalist party does not have a significant effect on the likelihood to attract immigrants.

(3)

iii

Acknowledgments

First and foremost, I would like to thank my parents for always being there for me and supporting me in the process of writing this paper. I would also like to thank my supervisor Dr Mike Medeiros who guided me and supported me throughout the writing process. In addition, I would like to thank everyone who took the time to proofread this paper and gave useful feedback. I would also like to thank Alice Pleasant for solving all my questions and supporting me in this process. A very special thank you to my aunt who has always believed in me and whose help has been crucial to write this paper. Finally, I would like to dedicate this paper to my grandparents whose wisdom guides me in every step I take in life.

(4)

iv

List of Figures

Figure 5. 1 Catalonia, Regionalist vote intention. Moderated by democratic satisfaction with Spain. ... 45 Figure 5. 2 Catalonia, Regionalist vote intention. Moderated by attachment to Spain ... 46 Figure 5. 3 Bavaria, Regionalist vote intention. Moderated by attachment to Bavaria ... 51

(7)

vii

List of Tables

Table 5. 1 Catalonia, Determinants of attachment ... 42

Table 5. 2 Catalonia, Determinants of satisfaction with democracy ... 43

Table 5. 3 Catalonia, Determinants of vote choice for a regionalist party ... 44

Table 5. 4 Bavaria, Determinants of attachment... 48

Table 5. 5 Bavaria, Determinants of satisfaction with democracy ... 49

Table 5. 6 Bavaria, Determinants of vote choice for a regionalist party ... 50

Table A. 1 Catalonia, Determinants of vote choice ... 60

Table A. 2 Catalonia, Determinants of vote choice ... 60

(8)

viii

List of Abbreviations

CiU Convergència i Unió (Convergence and Union) CSU Christlich Soziale Union (Christian Social Union) CUP Candidatura d'Unitat Popular (Popular Unity Candidacy)

ERC Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (Republican Left of Catalonia) ETA Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (Basque Homeland and Freedom)

FDP Freie Demokratische Partei (Free Democratic Party)

ICV-EUiA Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds - Esquerra Unida i Alternativa (Initiative for Catalonia Greens and United Alternative Left)

JxCat Junts per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia) PP Partido Popular (People’s Party)

PSC Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya (Party of the Socialists of Catalonia) PxCat Plataforma per Catalunya (Platform for Catalonia)

SI Solidaritat Satalana per la Independència (Catalan Solidarity for independence) SNP Scottish National Party

SPD Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (Social Democratic Party of Germany) SSNP Sub State National Party

(9)

1

Chapter 1: Introduction

Developing a sense of belonging to a community is something that has been crucial for human beings since the start of history. This feeling of being part of a group has, over hundreds of years, evolved to a feeling of belonging to entire nations. Therefore, the original idea of a nation-state is to assemble everyone with a common nationality under one single state. However, this simplified way of looking at nation-states does not always apply. Nation-states are diverse and sometimes host to different sub-nations. In fact, of the almost two hundred nation-states that exist, a maximum of fifteen actually qualify as nation-states: Japan, Iceland, the two Koreas, Portugal and not many more (Connor, 1984). A multi-national or multi-ethnic state is, therefore, the rule rather than the exception. Diversity within a state may come in different forms, going from linguistic plurality to religious diversity, which can add to the ethnic heterogeneity of a nation-state. This heterogeneity is not always well represented in the state’s institutions. It is therefore not surprising that in many nation-states there are still regions today that demand greater control over their affairs.

Regionalist movements are present in the political reality of many countries and in some cases, they become very relevant in the governability of the region. In the era of globalization that we live in, global mobility is one of its main features. Immigration has shaped the societies of all nation-states, including the societies of regions that have a different identity to the rest of the state. The diversity that is brought by immigration is not only a challenge to the conventional model of nation-state, but it is also an issue for communities and groups (Byrne, 2020). The arrival of immigrants to a region where there is a conflict due to the existence of a regionalist movement opens an interesting discussion. In these societies, the new diversity brought by immigration joins the traditional politics of regionalism. As was stated by Banting and Soroka (2012) “it is at this nexus where the multiculturism brought by mass immigration meets the politics of minority nationalism.” Although many immigrants remain bystanders, some immigrants will show their support for the regionalist identity and others will identify more with the central state identity. The regionalist movements could benefit from the arrival of newcomers, or it could harm them, depending on what identity these immigrants develop.

The discussion that arises is whether these immigrants are more attracted to the central state or if they feel more attracted by their region and its project to gain more

(10)

2 autonomy. This paper will study this topic by researching to what extent immigrants support regionalist movements. It will do so by focusing on two cases, Catalonia and Bavaria. The research question that this paper will answer is therefore: To what extent do immigrants in Catalonia and Bavaria support regionalism?

Many scholars have published literature researching the way regionalist movements have reacted to immigration and how they have shaped their strategy. By studying different regions, this body of literature has found that regionalist movements have adopted a large variety of positions towards immigration, some more inclusive and others more exclusive. However, there is a lack of literature that has discussed to what extent immigrants are attracted by these regionalisms. This paper is going to fill this gap in the literature by

studying the topic for the cases of Catalonia and Bavaria. The main argument that this paper will defend is that immigrants are attracted to regionalism in Catalonia and Bavaria to the same extent to which the regionalist political parties adopt an inclusive approach. This argument means that immigrants’ support for regionalism is impacted by the level of inclusivity that the political parties show.

To attempt to answer this research question and study this argument, the paper used a mixed-methods approach to analyse survey data and purposely conducted interviews. The survey data was used to study both regions and was statistically analysed. The results of the thematic analysis of the interviews that were conducted with the representatives of the main regionalist parties and with immigrants from both regions showed the following. The interviewed regionalist parties in Catalonia (ERC, JxCat and CUP) can be categorised as having an inclusive approach towards immigrants. For the case of Bavaria, the outcome of the analysis of both regionalist parties (CSU and Bayernpartei) showed that the CSU has an exclusive approach and Bayernpartei a more moderate but still exclusive approach towards immigration. The results of the regressions of the survey data that were run show that not a significant judgment can be made about the likelihood of immigrants being attracted by regionalist parties. The main finding of this paper is that the extent to which immigrants support regionalist political parties is not conditioned by whether these parties promote an exclusive form of regionalism or by contrary adopt an inclusive approach.

Six chapters were created in order to categorise and understand the full breadth of the research topic. Following this introduction, the second chapter is a literature review of the relevant scholarship for the here presented topic. The chapter will be divided into sections

(11)

3 discussing the literature, explaining how the research gap will be filled and the chapter will also include a formal case presentation. The third chapter will lay out the theoretical

framework of the paper and will discuss the previous theories and findings that are relevant to answer the research question. The main argument of the paper will be further explained and backed by previous literature in this chapter. Next, the hypothesis of this paper will be set out. In chapter four, this paper’s methodology and data will be presented and discussed. It will be explained how the quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analysed. This chapter will also discuss what variables were used in this paper and how they were coded. Chapter five will present the results of the quantitative and qualitative analysis concerning this paper’s presented hypotheses. Presenting first the qualitative analysis and then

quantitative analysis. Chapter five will also include a section comparing the results for both cases. Finally, chapter six will give an overall conclusion of the paper by summarising the results, discussing the limitations of the study and explaining the implications for future research.

(12)

4

Chapter 2: Literature Review

2.1 Review of the existing scholarship

The following section is going to review how the scholarship has discussed the topic of immigrant support for regionalist movements. The existing literature has been divided into sections, starting with the research that has studied this topic from the widest perspective, meaning that it did not directly address this paper’s topic, and ending up with the literature that has come closest to addressing the here presented topic.

2.1.1 Nationalism, regionalism and patriotism

As has been mentioned in the introduction, the existence of a national identity does not always mean that there is a corresponding nation-state. These stateless nations are categorised as regions in the nation-state they form part of (Connor 1993, 370). Some scholars argue that often in these regions a type of nationalism exists, that differs from the patriotism that reigns in the rest of the country. The scholar Connor brings to our attention the efforts that states make to portray the “loyalty to one’s national group (nationalism) and loyalty to one’s state (patriotism)” as a merge that reinforces each other (Connor 1993, 374). However, as he warns not all states are nation-states, he only identifies fifteen states as nation-states, the rest are multinational states. This evidences the importance of distinguishing between nationalism and patriotism. Connor (1993) concludes that because nationalism appeals to ethnic ties and kinship, it awakens a commitment that patriotism is not able to awaken. This argument justifies the high number of regional nationalisms that have always existed.

2.1.2 Multiculturality in multinational states

Amidst discussions of nationalism and patriotism like the one Connor studies, the structure and the way of functioning of regions have been increasingly exposed to the effects of globalization. One of the biggest effects of globalization is the increase in human mobility.

(13)

5 Immigration reshapes societies and changes the way a regional identity is understood. This issue is a matter that covers two fields, multiculturalism and multinationalism (Kymlicka, 2011). Therefore, it is important to observe how these sub-state nations, which are part of a multinational state promote, their identity amongst the newcomers to the region. This was often done by enhancing a particularly multinational notion of the regional identity. The goal of this tactic is to demonstrate that the home nationality of the migrants is compatible with the identity of the host region. With this integrative multinational approach, the regionalist movement tries to present itself as more inviting than the nationality promoted by the central state. Evidence of the success of this type of method can be found in Scotland, where nearly fifty percent of Pakistani ethnic voters voted for the separatist Scottish National Party (SNP) in the 2003 regional elections (Kymlicka 2011, 283). In the case of Scotland, we still find today that the UK citizenship agenda aims to encourage immigrants to identify with Britain, and the Scottish nationalists are trying to do the same with theirs. The Scots’ multinational approach was more convincing in this case, and some argue that certain political promises in 2003 influenced Pakistani voting behaviour. The SNP spoke out against starting a war with Iraq, while Britain backed the military intervention. As later findings revealed, more than a third of the ethnic Pakistani people in Scotland supported the nationalist movement.

(Kymlicka 2011, 289).

British scientists have found that the transfer of educational competences in

multinational countries to regional governments benefits the subnational movements and also widens the gap between the conflicting positions (Andrews, 2007). This conflict of interests causes an increase in tensions in the region, which then affects second-generation newcomers who are polarised. Other scholars have also pointed out that the UK central government has given almost no attention to these educational inequalities within the multinational state and the implications for the political identity of British citizens. However, the dynamics of multiculturalism in multinational states is not always favourable for the sub-state nationalist project. Banting and Soroka (2012) found that immigrants and second-generation immigrants in Quebec have an exceptionally low attachment rate to any of the two contested identities. Immigrants tend to be detached from any type of political community in this region. The reason for this is still unclear but part of the research findings was that immigrant

discrimination is not higher in Quebec than in other parts of Canada. Lastly, the often-used argument that language impedes integration in Quebec, is also proven wrong by this study

(14)

6 (Banting and Soroka 2012, 170). The ability to speak French was found to have no relation with the facility of integrating for the immigrants.

When immigrants come to a multinational country and are exposed to regional

movements, they may initially be on the side of the conflict and prefer none. In the long term, however, migrants also prefer one of the identities to which they are exposed (Kymlicka 2011, 291). The Scottish example shows that migrants often choose the identity of the sub state nation. This decision is often made by other seemingly irrelevant decisions that influence their identity. This is true for many migrants in Catalonia who have to decide whether they and their children learn Catalan or Spanish, in which language they watch television, or whether they buy Spanish or Catalan journals. With this in mind, one of the most important decisions is whether your children go to school in Spanish or whether they go to school in Catalan. These decisions are usually made based on what the predominant

language is of the neighbourhood they live in. These initially purely linguistic questions are associated with a considerably high political weight (Kymlicka 2011, 291). Barcelona is the city of Catalonia with the largest percentage of immigrants. The city is equally divided between Catalan speakers and Spanish speaking residents. The decisions of the newcomers have an important impact on whether Barcelona becomes more Spanish or Catalan speaking. The voice of the immigrants who are allowed to vote also determines whether Barcelona chooses more nationalistic parties in the elections or whether it chooses nationwide parties. This phenomenon cannot only be observed in Barcelona but also in other cities such as Montreal or Brussels.

2.1.3 Regionalist Political Parties in Europe

Regionalist discussions are not only present in the general society but are often increasingly present in the political sphere. Some sectors of the societies where regionalism is an

occurring discussion, support the idea that their region should have greater autonomy. Those who share this idea have started movements and political parties to see their objectives become reality. These regionalist political parties and movements are widespread in Europe, where different identities often coexist in the same nation-state. Over the last decades, most European states have become democratic states, allowing for the emergence of a wide range

(15)

7 of regionalist political parties. Relevant literature has been published that discusses how these parties of all sorts of ideologies behave and evolve in a highly globalized Europe.

Gone are the days when regionalist parties in Europe did not interact with each other and only focused on their struggle against the central state. With the arrival of the EU, these parties became active on the European level (De Winter, 2002). The first consequence of the so-called “Europeanization process”, was that it moderated the ideological distance that had historically hindered transnational party cooperation (De Winter 2002, 496). Ideologically different parties such as the Welsh and the Basque nationalist party worked side by side to discuss regional politics and create alliances. Secondly, as a consequence of the greater relevance of these regionalist parties on the European level, their often common agenda on topics such as ecology, the democratization of the European Union, the adoption of

multiculturalism, or the defence of those migrating to and within Europe, became very visible.

Many of the regionalist parties in Europe came together, and even more do so still today, under the European Free Alliance (EFA) (De winter 2002, 496). EFA is a group of parties that came together to create a parliamentary group in the European Parliament. The most prominent political party has, for a long time, been the Volksunie. The Flemish party has been crucial for EFA, since it has had at least one representative in the European

Parliament and has made efforts to create and sustain a common ideology that is based on the lowest common denominator: regionalism with a new vision of politics and a European view.

2.1.4 Regionalist parties react positively to immigration

In all regionalist political parties, the idea of territory plays a significant role. Political Parties define the idea of a nation in such a way that it is inclusive and allows for expansion

(Hepburn 2011, 516). This approach is adopted by one of the European nationalist parties that have been previously discussed: the Scottish Nationalist Party. The way in which the party defines the Scottish nation corroborates the inclusive approach of this party “the Scottish nation constitutes a political community that requires sovereign statehood to make it a ‘normal nation’” (Hepburn 2011, 517). The Scottish community is characterised territorially rather than ethnically and therefore any person can form part of the nation simply by living in

(16)

8 Scotland and sharing its institutions and societal rules. Scholar Nieguth (1999) found that territorial conceptions of a nation, like the one adopted by the SNP, are the least restrictive when welcoming new members. Unlike identities based on cultural notions, a territorial conception of a nation is inclusive of individuals with other cultures.

One of the consequences of adopting an inclusionary approach is that the requirements for being nationalist are easier met and this gives the SNP the chance to broaden its electoral base to a growing part of society: those who migrated to Scotland. The SNP has repeated in various occasions that the diverse origins of the Scottish citizens is an opportunity to further develop Scottish society (Hepburn 2011, 518). As became evident through the Pakistani example, the Scottish independence movement has greatly benefitted from the SNPs inclusive stances and has attracted the support of a high number of immigrants in the region.

Additionally, another notorious sub-state nationalist party is Convergència i Unió (CiU) in Catalonia (Hepburn 2011, 519). Although this party has since then been dissolved and Junts per Catalunya (JxCat) has taken its place, there is relevant literature that has analysed its interesting approach to immigration. This federation of conservative, liberal and Christian Democratic parties has built the Catalan nation through its own ideology and values. However, their traditional and Catholic ideology has not affected their view of Catalonia as an inclusive nation. CiU’s progressive ideals in terms of building the nation became apparent in one of its most famous statements. When asked who could be considered a Catalan, former Catalonian president Jordi Pujol stated, “everyone who lives and works in Catalonia and has a wish to be so and feels tied to this land, is Catalan” (Hepburn 2011, 518). CiU adopted this declaration as one of its guidelines when discussing immigration and

constructed a membership based on language and not on race or descent. The party's approach secured them votes from many immigrants who are now voting for their closest party: Junts per Catalunya. Differently to the Scottish case, in Catalonia there were and continue to be multiple nationalist parties, which share the votes of those immigrants who support the nationalist project in Catalonia.

Both parties discussed above show intentions to want to integrate immigrants into the sub-national community and not into the British or Spanish nation. However, some scholars have found a discrepancy in their perspective on this (Franco-Guillén, 2016). The SNP believes that the immigrants will assume a Scottish identity, while in the Catalan movement

(17)

9 they do not consider this process of adopting an identity to be as natural and some parties have voiced their worries. This justification is also used in the scholarship to describe the different types of support that sub-state nationalist parties obtain from immigrants.

Having an inclusive approach to gain backing for a substate national cause is not a unique practice to political parties. The literature shows how these methods were used at a time when political parties were illegal, for example the nationalist movement in Catalonia while Spain suffered a fascist dictatorship (Huszka 2013, 159). The Catalan nationalists included Marxist and Catholic ideas in their ideology, intending to ally with newcomers from other parts of Spain. This integrative way of framing the nationalist movement successfully contributed to the clandestine resistance that the movement waged during the fascist

dictatorship. These non-Catalan workers adopted Catalan nationalist symbols, for example, nationalist music and poetry.

Furthermore, the identity of a sub-state nationalist movement is adaptable and in some cases is designed according to the group it wants to get attention from (Huszka 2013, 160). The redefinition of the identity of a community and its cause has also been demonstrated in the fight for independence. In these identity reform procedures, it is not uncommon for different identities to overlap within the movement for a certain period. The separatist movement in Slovenia is a good example to show this, since until the end of its struggle for independence, there was an inclusive speech directed at those who were not ethnically Slovenian. This approach shared the political discourse with an exclusionary faction that spoke against the inclusion of other ethnic groups in their movement (Huszka 2013, 159). Inclusive arguments had a greater impact on the global discourse than excluding arguments and attracted many non-Slovenians who supported secession. Ironically, once they succeeded in gaining independence, the exclusionary discussion became prominent again and demanded that those who were not ethnically Slovenian, should not be able to get the Slovenian

citizenship.

One of the most important regionalist parties in Europe is the Flemish regionalist party. The author Adam (2013) has studied the evolution of this party since the start of ‘devolution’ the change of policy-making decisions to the regional level. Her study shows that the Flemish liberal government adopted inclusionary measures in various ways whenever they had a chance to do so in government. Since the 1980s the newcomers to the Flemish territory have had to take compulsory Dutch courses, following the Dutch integration model

(18)

10 (Adam 2013, 557). The Flemish integration process also includes a course on social

orientation which is remarkable for its clear focus on promoting assimilationism rather than multiculturalism. A well-known gesture of the Flemish liberal party was to suggest that the derogatory term ‘allochthonous’ should be replaced by the term ‘new Fleming’. As will be discussed in the following section, at the start of the 2000s the Flemish parties changed their stance on immigration.

Minorities that feel culturally vulnerable are often less open to immigrants, but as discussed in the preceding section, movements and identities are often open and able to adapt to current events. The Basque nationalist movement is a perfect example to demonstrate those two factors combined. In the 19th century, Basque nationalism was founded as a means of protecting and defending their country (Huszka 2013, 166). This exclusionary understanding of who could claim to be part of the Basque nation, excluded and even depicted non-Basques as threatening. Nationalist parties and labour unions excluded non-Basques. As the terrorist group ETA gained power, this exclusive idea towards non-Basques changed since it needed support and new militants. Spanish immigration to the Basque country increased in the 1960s and soon accounted for thirty percent of the population. The notion of accepting assimilated Basques gained relevance within the nationalist movement and amongst ETA members (Huszka 2013, 167). Consequently, the campaign centred less on the notion of race and succeeded in mobilizing those living in big cities, including non-Basques. Some of these immigrants entered the terrorist group ETA and others entered the secessionist movement by affiliating to nationalist political parties. These nationalist parties were backed by majority immigrant districts insofar as thirty-seven percent of their electorate were not ethnically Basque (Huszka 2013, 168).

2.1.5 Regionalist Parties react negatively to immigration:

Not all regionalist movements are as accepting and inclusive as the ones previously discussed. The following section will discuss the literature that has found that regionalist movements adopt exclusive stances. Some scholars have found that, for some of these

political parties, immigration is an opportunity to define their culture and identity in an era of globalisation and integration (Hepburn, 2009). There are presently two major regionalist

(19)

11 political parties in Europe that use immigrants as a way to determine who is allowed to form part of their nation. The first party to pursue an exclusive attitude is the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU). This political party describes itself as “the party of the Bavarian people” and as a protector of German federalism and the “Heimat”. Some researchers argue that the word “Heimat”, which means home in German, is used to avoid the term “Nation”. Contrary to the SNP, the CSU recognizes the Bavarian nation as an imagined community. A

multicultural Bavaria is not endorsed by the CSU. One of their representatives once said that “the talk of a multicultural society tears the roots of our national and cultural identity that has grown over centuries” (Hepburn 2009, 518).

The other regionalist party to pursue an exclusive immigration strategy is La Lega Nord in Italy (Hepburn 2009, 520). This party constructed the imagined community of

Padania, based merely on the geographical borders of the northern Italian region. La Lega has built its nation based on the traditional and Catholic ways of life it stands for. At the centre of the political discourse are their anti-immigration politics and the constant revindication of the dominance of the north in the Italian context. Family and ethnic origin are also of relevance in defining the membership of the community, they advocate for the return of the Italian descendants from Latin America. La Lega consequently only receives support from local Italians.

Some researchers assign this systematic rejection of immigrants to a utilitarian and economic way of reasoning, this concept has been coined as the ‘selfishness of the affluent’ (Franco-Guillén 2016, 1313). This model suggests that in instances of the arrival of high numbers of immigrants and in times of financial deficit, regionalist nationalist parties will reject the entrance of new migrants to the region. These parties might likewise stop seeking support from immigrants in periods when the region’s economy is doing better than the central state economy (Franco-Guillén 2016, 1306).

As Escandell (2010) argues, communities evolve and adapt over time. Not all regionalist movements that now have a positive stance towards immigration never had exclusionary approaches and even today we find that these movements are not homogenous. Some scholars have found a correlation between anti-immigrant feelings and having a strong regional feeling. Examples of this have been identified throughout the recent history of the three sub-state nations in Spain (Escandell 2010, 160). This correlation has also been

(20)

12 be less tolerant of immigration and racial diversity than the English-speaking part of Quebec (Bilodeau 2012, 583). Quebec's lack of enthusiasm for accepting newcomers can be

described by comprehending their identity perspective. The regional dynamics are very strong in Quebec, and many fear that the French language could lose relevance in the region.

Lastly, this change in attitude towards immigration can be found in a region that has traditionally been favourable of immigration: Flanders (Adam 2013, 560). This positive attitude started changing in the early 2000s, when Flemish regionalists started to witness how immigrants who arrived in Brussels and the near cities very easily integrated into the French-speaking community but had more trouble interacting with the Dutch-French-speaking community. This led to the fear that Dutch is being endangered. This fear has caused the Flemish political parties to support measures that are more exclusive than inclusive, like, for instance the refusal of voting rights for immigrants (Adam 2013, 561). They feared that these immigrants would overwhelmingly vote for Francophone rather than for Flemish parties. With the start of the new century, the Flemish parties started passing policies that targeted five different minority groups (Jacobs, 2004). Namely, citizens with at least one parent born outside Belgium, refugees, non-Dutch speaking immigrants, illegal immigrants, and also Romany populations. These policies intended on promoting a form of adapted multiculturalism but that has been found by many to be policies promoting segregation. This integration plan is seen by many as the return of assimilationist integration policies to Europe (Jacobs 2004, 290).

2.1.6 Mixed Response: Inclusionary and Exclusionary

Just like authors such as Keating (2006) have discussed how societies see immigration merely as a threat, and authors like Kymlicka (2011) have argued the opposite, the author Byrne (2020) has proposed the Threat-Benefit Framework. Byrne’s framework explains how immigrants might be seen as threatening but also as beneficial by the receiving society. The framework of this previously mentioned author is based on the findings that show that the members of the regionalist movement adopt diverse approaches towards immigration.

Byrne is not the only author that has argued that sub-state nationalist movements might react with both approaches simultaneously. The authors Jeram, van der Zwet and

(21)

13 Wisthaler (2016) researched how sub-state nationalist movements reacted to immigration. The authors start from the premise that the main tasks of these parties are to protect the group distinctiveness and enhance the interest for the sub-state rather than the central state, are now more complicated due to the diversification of their societies. However, they also understand that including these migrants into their community might boost their demographic relevance and validate them as a liberal democracy. The case studies they discuss show that the

responses to immigration are complicated and “multifaceted” (Jeram et al. 2016, 1230). As found by many other authors, the different stateless nationalist parties are found to react in varied ways, some with inclusionary and others with exclusionary projects. The main finding of Jeram et al. is that in most cases, these regionalist parties adopt both inclusive and

exclusive measures in their response to the new and growing ethnic diversity of their community. This argument is to be true in many regionalist cases. One example that was previously discussed illustrates this very well, the Slovenian independence movement (Huszka 2013, 159).

2.1.7 How have regionalist movements defined themselves?

As has been demonstrated by the literature that has been previously discussed, regionalist movements are to a large extent in control of which sectors of society support their cause. Regionalist political parties have consequently taken different approaches when defining their identity community. Immigrants have also been susceptible to these approaches and have supported regionalisms to a larger or smaller extent depending on the approach taken by the political parties of their region. The existing literature has shown that these political parties have defined themselves through a large variety of approaches. The following section will discuss the findings that scholars have made and what theories they have come up with to explain them.

Hepburn (2009) discusses how regionalist parties define themselves based on the construction of their territory. She suggests that those parties that seek to advance the

interests of a given substate territory, which they may or may not define as a nation should be studied as regionalist parties (Hepburn, 2009, 515). Territorial interests are not necessarily only concerned with nationhood or self-determination but also with socioeconomic demands such as addressing regional economic inequalities and demographic challenges.

(22)

14 Hepburn discusses two examples that have been mainly based on territorial

boundaries, but that have yet different approaches. As has been mentioned before in this paper, the SNP characterises the Scottish nation territoriality and therefore anyone who lives in it can be part of their nation simply by sharing its institutions and society (Hepburn, 2009, 517). This open approach makes it easier for immigrants to form part of the nation and allows the SNP to appeal to a wide range of the voting electorate.

The second example Hepburn describes is the way The Northern League defines who is part of their community. Its community is entirely based on the territorial boundaries of Northern Italy, which La Lega has called ‘Padania’. La Lega has manifested its rejection of the arrival of immigrants on several occasions and often uses immigration to define who can opt to form part of its community (Hepburn, 2009, 519). Padania is proclaimed as an ethnic, linguistic, territorial and economic community made out of people who descent from this region. This research of Hepburn about the case of La Lega contradicts the findings of Nieguth (1999) which showed that nations that define their community territorially, adopt an inclusive approach towards immigration. Despite Padania being conceptualised based on territory, La Lega has adopted a very negative stance towards immigration.

Authors like Conversi (1997) and Hepburn (2009) have studied the linguistic

framework that many regionalisms use when defining their community. One of the cases they use to explain how regionalisms construct a membership that is built on language indicators instead of race or descent, is Catalonia. While studying this phenomenon, Conversi (1997) simplified Pujol’s statement, “anyone who lives and works in Catalonia and who wants to be Catalan is a Catalan” to simply “a Catalan is whoever speaks Catalan” (Conversi, 1997, 215). Political parties such as CiU have in the past stated that the Catalan nation is not exclusively for those who descent from this region, but that the belonging to this community is largely based on the Catalan language (Hepburn, 2009, 515).

This approach allows immigrants to be highly likely to be considered part of their community by learning Catalan. Immigrants have indeed shown positive attitudes towards the process of learning Catalan (Conversi, 1997, 212). Different arguments have been put

forward to explain the vast diffusion of Catalan amongst immigrants. Conversi (1997) finds an interesting explanation for this, which uses the concept of relative deprivation. Since the autochthonous Catalans are economically better positioned, they act as a reference group for immigrants. Emulating their linguistic and cultural behaviour is seen by many as an

(23)

15 opportunity to eventually become part of the group. Evidence has been provided that shows that immigrants truly are interested in learning Catalan. A survey asking about whether Catalan should be the language used to teach at schools and whether it should be a subject recorded the highest support in neighbourhoods with high numbers of immigrants (Conversi, 1997, 213).

Another practice that has been discussed by the literature is alluding to immigration for ideological reasons, for example, if an immigrant group is known for having pronounced support for the socialist cause. The Catalan nationalists included in their list of arguments Marxist and Catholic ideas, intending to want to join forces with the newcomers from other parts of Spain. The result was positive and many low-class Spanish immigrants endorsed the Catalan movement (Huszka 2013, 159). But Huszka is not the only author that has discussed how immigration might be favoured for ideological reasons. Jeram and Adam (2015) argue that immigration from developing countries has been welcomed by some sub-state

nationalistic movements to demonstrate their compromise with those who are also oppressed. Sub-state nationalist parties show in this way that they form part of a global fight against the oppression of cultural minorities.

Lastly, Nieguth (1999) has studied how some nations adopt a cultural view of their membership. This cultural approach of defining a nation was found not to be exclusive towards individuals but exclusive towards other cultures. In these cases, nations expect immigrants to assume the host culture to be part of the nation. Cultural assimilation then becomes a condition for acquiring a membership in the nation. Moreover, Nieguth discusses how some nations which are based on ancestral notions, include and exclude people. An example of this is Lega Nord, that refers to ancestry and kinship when defining Padania and ask for the return of those who left Northern Italy over the past decades (Hepburn, 2009).

2.1.8 Why do regionalist movements change the way they define themselves?

Some authors have found explanations for why these political parties might be interested in gaining the support of the immigrants. Beyond the simple reasoning that parties are interested in attracting the immigrant’s support because this would give them more votes and greater power, there are more specific reasonings for the interest in the immigrant community. An example of this is the opportunity that is seen in the immigrants for the region’s economy.

(24)

16 Many European countries face demographic challenges as their population gets increasingly older. Besides, labour shortages have also become common, especially in western European countries. Some scholars have found that regionalist political parties include a positive stance towards immigration since they see them as a potential tool for overcoming both of these problems (Franco-Guillén, 2016, 1312).

Scotland is no exception to these challenges, and its national party has on many occasions expressed its convincement that the compensation of the demographic decline is to be attributed to the arrival of immigrants. As the SNP’s deputy leader once stated, “Scotland faces a number of big challenges in the years ahead. One of the biggest, is our declining population and that makes it more important than ever to encourage people from other parts of the world to choose Scotland as their home.” (Franco-Guillén, 2016, 1312). With this positive attitude, the SNP also aims to include the immigrants on board of the Scottish regionalist project and also demand from the central government greater control over immigration in their region. The literature that has studied this reasoning for such an

approach towards immigration, argues that this stance could be even more prominent in times where the economy is suffering a crisis.

The work of scholars like Connor (1984) or Hepburn (2014) contradicts the argument presented by Franco-Guillen (2016). Connor foresaw a rejection by sub-state nationalist parties of immigrants based on the economic reasoning of the “selfishness of the affluent” (Connor 1984). This theory suggests that the combination of a high influx of immigrants and economic instability in the region will likely lead to the selfishness of the affluent: the reluctancy to sharing the region’s wealth with newcomers. The conclusion that is made through this argument is that immigration indirectly leads to demands of greater control over resources and more self-governance or even demands of independence.

Hepburn (2014) builds on this argument to suggest that regionalist parties in relatively poor regions which suffer skills shortages in the labour market are more likely to support immigration than regionalist parties in regions where the economy is flourishing and there is no lack of skilled labour. Put in one sentence, sub-state parties will be selfish and negative towards immigration when the regional economy is doing better than the national economy.

(25)

17

2.2 Case Presentation: Catalonia and Bavaria

This paper is going to study the support for regionalism amongst immigrants with a focus on two specific cases: Catalonia and Bavaria. The justification for why these cases have been chosen will be discussed in the research gap section. These two cases are home to some of the most relevant regionalist movements in Europe and have therefore been previously discussed by the scholarship. The following section is going to discuss the literature that has studied the immigrant support for regionalism in the two presented case studies.

2.2.1 Literature on the case of Catalonia

Catalonia has welcomed many new immigrants in the past two decades. In 2010 the percentage of foreign-born residents reached fifteen percent of the Catalan population (Hepburn, 2014). This proportion contrasts with the two percent of foreign-born citizens that lived in Catalonia in the year 2000. Almost a quarter of these immigrants came from Africa, a quarter came from Central and South America and around fifteen percent came from Asia. In the year 2010, a study conducted by the Catalan Statistics Institute showed that almost twenty percent of the Catalan population was born in other regions of Spain (Hepburn 2014, 46). This gives us an idea of why the question of immigration is so relevant when discussing Catalan regionalism.

The author Franco Guillen has researched the question of whether the economy influences the Sub-State political parties’ discourses towards immigration (Franco-Guillén, 2016). He used Catalonia as a case study and found that Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), contrary to what Hepburn (2016) found, has remained pro-immigration. Despite Catalonia being a rich region with a flourishing economy, a negative stance towards immigration was not adopted by this party. ERC sees immigration as a part of Catalan identity and part of the inevitable process for a modern economy (Franco-Guillén, 2016, 1313). ERC’s response to immigration has been to protect the social cohesion while ensuring an adequate acceptance of immigrants, meaning mostly equal opportunities and the chance for immigrants to study Catalan. If an economic crisis was to hit Catalonia, the relevance of maintaining social cohesion and the immigrant’s rights, would not be dismissed. ERC has

(26)

18 made clear references to the incorporation of newcomers into the sub-state nation instead of the state nation. ERC is aware that they cannot simply assume that most immigrants in Catalonia will naturally identify with Catalonia rather than with Spain and has expressed its concerns regarding this issue before (Franco-Guillén, 2016, 1313).

The author Steven Byrne (2020) examines the impact of the different recent waves of immigrants that have arrived in Catalonia, on the modern Catalan nationalist movement. More specifically, he researches the public opinion towards immigration and the impact this has on a sub-state nation’s identity and interests. The impact of the ‘new’ diversity created by the arrival of new immigrants on the ‘old’ politics put forward by sub-state nationalism, has been especially noticeable in Catalonia (Byrne, 2020, 1). Before studying this case, Byrne points out that previous literature has found that sub-state nationalists have not followed the recent trend of adopting anti-multiculturalist policies (Byrne, 2020, 2). Catalonia’s reality is truly diverse, 13,6% of its population is of foreign descent. After Catalonia experienced this great influx of international migrants during the start of our current century, the Catalan government remodelled some parts of its integration policies. Byrne’s analysis finds that since then and until now, the policies have increasingly focused on pluralism and

interculturalism.

The theoretical framework used by Byrne is based on the threat-benefit model (Byrne, 2020, 6). This model argues that a local population can construct immigrants as at the same time threatening but also beneficial for the receiving society. Byrne argues that those Catalans that are reluctant towards including immigrants in their regionalist project, might feel threatened by them. This threat is based on the fear of being outnumbered and hence becoming powerless in the political scheme. A perceived threat is also based on the notion that the arrival of citizens who do not have any historical tie with the land could weaken the identity of the stateless nation. On the other hand, some members of the Catalan regionalist movement see immigration as beneficial for their cause. Migrants might act as allies against the power of the central government and can therefore, contribute to their emancipation project. Immigrants are increasingly becoming an important share of the population and their support for the region’s identity, culture and language.

Byrne’s interviews with members of the regionalist movement show that the movement is aware of Catalonia’s new multicultural reality (Byrne, 2020, 9). Besides this generalized awareness, there still seem to be doubts as to how the adaptation to this new

(27)

19 multicultural society will work. Especially considering that many of the foreign immigrants settle down in lower-class neighbourhoods where Spanish is still the predominant language and there is no interest in the nationalist project. Some interviewees raise their concern regarding the unlikelihood of the integration into the regionalist movement of immigrants of South America (Byrne, 2020, 12). The main conclusion that Byrne drew from these

interviews is that the supporters of regionalism mirror the approach taken by the political parties, which as discussed, promote inclusivity and the normalization of diversity. Other scholars like Pardos-Prado (2019) have found that showing support for the Catalan regionalist movement is strongly correlated with having pro-immigration attitudes. This was attributed to the positive and transversal approach that the regionalist parties in Catalonia have taken. These findings echo Byrne’s findings that show that the regionalist movement in Catalonia is not a homogenous group, but it seems like anti-immigrant rhetoric is less widespread among those who favour regionalist movements.

2.2.2 Literature on the case of Bavaria

For the case of Bavaria, there is a shortage in the literature that has discussed the support for regionalism amongst the immigrants of this region. The already discussed work of Hepburn (2009), has studied the approach of the CSU and argued its contrast with the SNP. Hepburn together with Zaslove (2009) published in the same year a paper discussing the territorial strategies of the alpine neighbours, CSU and Lega Nord. This paper summarises the stance that the CSU has had in past decades, especially when higher levels of immigration arrived in the 1980s. The CSU then adopted a clear anti-immigration stance and wanted to ensure that Bavarian society was not diluted by foreigners (Hepburn & Zaslove 2009, 14). The CSU started a nationwide campaign demanding the reduction of the number of foreigners admitted to Germany and specifically to Bavaria. This campaign also advocated against citizenship rights for Turks. After the fall of the wall and in the late 1990s, Bavarian Minister-President Edmund Stoiber demanded a radical decrease in immigration and asylum levels. He argued that foreigners were ‘swamping’ the country and that the immediate deportation of ‘criminal foreigners’ was essential. In 2002 the CSU advocated against the immigration law that was put forward by the SPD and Greens coalition. During one of the parliamentary debates Stoiber argued: “We can’t afford to expand immigration, when in terms of integration, we

(28)

20 can’t cope with existing immigration” (Hepburn & Zaslove 2009, 15). After running an intense campaign, the CSU together with the CDU’s support successfully prevented the immigration bill from passing in 2002. The immigration law was eventually approved in 2005, but not without the CSU managing to dilute the proposals, by introducing a strict security component, and putting a strong emphasis on economic migration.

2.3 Research gap

As can be seen from the literature review, there is a considerable amount of literature on the way regionalist parties and movements have reacted to immigration and how they have changed their political strategy due to this new factor. However, there is a scarcity of

literature that has discussed whether immigrants do support these regionalisms. The outcome of all the strategies and political readjustments that were done by the regionalist actors remains widely unknown. This is true for the wider picture of regionalisms and the specific cases of Bavaria and Catalonia. This thesis aims to fill in this gap. Its objective is to gather enough evidence to be able to make a statement of what the answer to the research question is; To what extent do immigrants in Catalonia and Bavaria support regionalism? The study is going to address the question of whether those who migrate to a region where there is a regionalist movement, find this movement more attractive than the central state’s identity project. The peculiarity of this study is that a mixed-method approach has been chosen which allows to not only research the support for regionalist movements among immigrants but also to study whether there is a correlation between a party’s degree of inclusivity into its

regionalist project and the support it receives from immigrants.

2.3.1 Related Scholarship

As mentioned above, the literature has not covered the here presented research gap. However, three authors deserve special mention because their work is especially related to the research gap. Sanjay Jeram (2014) researched the change in the discourse of the main Sub State National Parties (SSNP) and concludes that their discourse did not change into being more anti-immigrant. His research shows that the nation-building discourse of SSNPs can move

(29)

21 beyond traditional appeals that link the nation to an explicit history, culture and language. However, Jeram does not show to what extent the immigrants support these SSNPs.

Additionally, although Jeram takes Catalonia as a case study, the Catalan focus lays only on the political party CiU, which does not exist anymore. The qualitative analysis of this paper analyses the most relevant regionalist parties today, JxCat, ERC and CUP.

The book by Arrighi and Hepburn (2014) studies the immigration policies adopted by different European regions and specifically their SSNPs. The most relevant chapter is on Catalonia and Scotland. Their main finding is that: “sub-state governments can incorporate immigration within a broader nation-building strategy of socioeconomic development, connecting the territory with transnational flows of labour in order to bolster endogenous growth and to strengthen their competitive advantage in a globalized context” (Arrighi and Hepburn 2014, 123). In addition, the research shows that “nationalist parties have been able to legitimize their claims that the Sub State Government should be given the means to manage its own admissions policy.” Although the study proves that SSNPs take immigration into account as a strategy to strengthen their cause, it does not show to what extent

immigrants support these nation-building processes. This paper will address this gap and evaluate the support of immigrants in Catalonia and Bavaria.

Lastly, Steven Byrne’s (2020) article discussing the threat benefit framework, arguably overlaps with the gap this paper intends to fill. He uses interviews as his main method, which this paper also does but as a complement to the quantitative analysis. Moreover, Byrne’s study is aimed at studying the perception that the supporters of regionalism have of those who have migrated to Catalonia. His main findings are that the supporters of Catalan regionalism mirror the approach taken by the political parties and that it seems like anti-immigrant rhetoric is less widespread among those who favour regionalist movements. This paper by contrary studies the support of the immigrants for the regionalist party in Catalonia. Furthermore, Byrne himself argues in his paper that there is a shortage of qualitative scholarly research analysing the Catalan case. This paper will contribute to covering that shortage. To conclude this section, it is also relevant to highlight that none of these authors has studied the case of Bavaria, which once again shows how understudied this case is.

(30)

22

2.3.2 Justifications

Why is comparing across countries needed?

Comparing the support among immigrants for regionalism is useful for understanding how the change of regional context might influence this support. Studying two cases and comparing them also contributes to understanding what factors might influence the extent to which immigrants support regionalism. In this study, the interest lays especially on the inclusivity or exclusivity of the regional movements in the two different regions.

Doing a comparison increases the validity of the study as it makes the generalization of the results of the study much more justifiable. Lastly, a cross-regional comparison increases the usefulness of this study for future research since it becomes relevant for the specific study of two regions.

Why these two cases?

Firstly, these two cases were chosen based on their great similarities. Both regions are part of the EU, both have a long history of regionalism and both are the economic motors of their respective countries. These regions are both in the process of treating with the high numbers of immigrants that they have welcomed since the start of the century. Secondly, there has been an increase in popularity in the past years of regionalist political parties in both cases. The political scene of both regions has been altered with new actors such as JxCat and the increased popularity of the Bayernpartei. These recent political changes make this

comparison not only useful but also politically relevant.

Why a mixed-method approach?

A mixed method approach has been adopted because it makes it possible to combine the analysis of existing quantitative data that has researched the opinion of citizens of both regions, and also allows for the analysis of the interviews that were purposely conducted to help respond the research question. Only studying the quantitative data would not have allowed to get a full insight into the behaviour of the political parties towards immigration. Only using qualitative data would not have allowed to make a significant judgement on the

(31)

23 extent to which immigrants are attracted to regionalism, since the number of observations would have been too low. Therefore, it can be said that both methods complement each other.

What will the qualitative and quantitative data demonstrate?

More specific to the here presented study, the quantitative analysis of the survey data that measured the political preferences and voting behaviour will be used as evidence for the support or lack of support that regionalism finds in the immigrant population of both regions. The results of this analysis will also help demonstrate the correlation between political parties adopting an inclusive approach and these receiving high support among immigrants.

The interviews that have been conducted with the representatives of the most important regionalist parties show the stances they have towards immigration. Answers to questions like whether they see immigration as a threat for their regional project, what

measures they have taken to include immigrants in their project, to what extent they believe it is possible to have various identities, will give us first-hand knowledge on where immigration stands in their political project. In addition, the interviews conducted with immigrants from Bavaria and Catalonia illustrate what the impact of the policies and stances of the regionalist parties is on the immigrants themselves.

Why were these politicians chosen as interviewees?

The six interviewed politicians were contacted because of their membership in one of the regionalist parties in Catalonia or Bavaria. The goal was to contact politicians that have a high ranked position in their party or that are related to the topic of immigration. This was not always achieved, as will be discussed in the limitations section.

Why were these immigrants chosen as interviewees?

To avoid a selection bias, the need for interviewees was not expressed in a public space or social media, which could have led to attracting only immigrants who have a particularly strong opinion on the topic. The interviewees were contacted through

acquaintances of friends by e-mail and asked to take part in an interview. In addition, it is relevant to discuss the reasoning for why interviewing immigrants from each region is relevant. These interviews will serve as an illustrative exercise rather than a representative sample. The answers of the immigrants will be used to contrast what the political parties stated on the different topics, with a first-hand experience of what the immigrants in these regions perceive. The function of these interviews is not to represent the political positioning

(32)

24 of Catalan and Bavarian immigrants on regionalism, that is the purpose of the quantitative data. Due to the low representativeness of these interviewees, the results that were obtained will not be used when discussing the hypothesis. However, they will be discussed in the conclusion of the qualitative results.

(33)

25

Chapter 3: Theoretical Framework

3.1 Previous theories and findings that help answer the RQ

As has been mentioned during the discussion of the research gap, there is not a lot of literature that has tried to answer the here presented research question. However, some findings help provide an idea of the extent to which immigrants are attracted by regionalism. The scholar Kymlicka (2011) found as part of his research that in the 2003 regional election in Scotland, ethnic Pakistanis showed great support for the SNP. In those elections, forty-seven per cent of ethnic Pakistanis supported the nationalist party, which as many scholars have found has an inclusive approach towards immigration (Franco-Guillén, 2014). More studies confirmed this support and found out that a third of ethnic Pakistanis in Scotland support Scottish independence. Furthermore, Kymlicka (2011) also discusses the case of Quebec, where in the 1995 referendum on independence, immigrants overwhelmingly voted against independence. Opinion polls confirmed this and found that immigrants are much more likely to identify with Canada than Quebec. Like many authors have found (Bilodeau 2012), Quebec nationalism has historically tended to be more sceptical about immigration. Moreover, the scholar Bracco (2018) researched the impact of the politics of the regionalist party Lega Nord in various cities where they came to power. More specifically he studied how the immigrants living in the region have reacted to their notoriously anti-immigrant politics. The exclusionary idea of who can belong to Padania has led many immigrants to feel repulsed by this movement. This dissatisfaction has become visible in the preferences of immigrants to move from cities where La Lega has come to power and the decision of immigrants to not move to cities where La Lega is present in the government. These findings seem to indicate that there is a correlation between the degree of inclusivity of a regionalist party and the level of support it gets from immigrants in the region. The main argument of this paper will be based on this notion.

3.2 Main argument and hypothesis

The main argument of this paper is that immigrants are attracted to regionalism in Catalonia and Bavaria to the same extent to which the regionalist political parties adopt an

(34)

26 inclusive approach. In other words, the immigrant support for regionalism is impacted by the level of inclusivity that the political parties show. This is believed to be the case based on the above-presented literature, which shows that when regionalist political parties adopt an inclusive approach, the immigrants of that region respond by being more likely to support them. Although there is a lack of significant evidence amongst the scholarship, it seems like political parties that have inclusively framed their regional identity (like could be the case of the SNP) receive significant support from immigrants (Kymlicka, 2011). On the other hand, political parties such as Lega Nord, which as discussed, framed Padania’s identity based on exclusivity, are found to receive low support from immigrants (Bracco, 2018). This paper will study whether this argument is true by analysing the cases of Bavaria and Catalonia. Consequently, the hypothesis that this paper will study is the following.

H1: Immigrants’ support for regionalist political parties is less likely if they promote an exclusive form of regionalism.

The logic behind the hypothesis is to allow this paper to study to what extent immigrants are attracted to regionalism and also to be able to state whether there is a correlation between this attraction and the party’s attitude towards immigration. The qualitative analysis of the conducted interviews allows for an in-depth analysis of what the stances on immigration are of the political parties which will help establish which form of regionalism can be found in both regions. The quantitative analysis of the opinion surveys allows for a detailed analysis of the immigrant preferences which will test whether the hypothesis is true.

(35)

27

Chapter 4: Methodology and Research Design

The mixed-method approach that has been used in this paper has allowed for the analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data. The following section is going to describe how the qualitative data was collected, where the data was collected and how it was coded. Moreover, the section will describe where the quantitative data was found, which variables were used and how it was coded.

4.1 Qualitative Data

The qualitative data used for this paper was collected by conducting interviews through skype and phone calls. These interviews were conducted in March, April and May of 2020. The goal of this research was to interview representatives of the main regionalist political parties of both regions. The insight provided by these politicians would help assess what the party’s stance is on immigration and to what extent immigrants are welcome in their regionalist project. A high number of, members of parliament, senators, elected officials and party representatives were contacted through e-mail and social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook. In addition, immigrants from both regions were interviewed to gain insight into how these political stances might affect immigrants. These immigrants were reached out to by friends and acquaintances. Ten interviewees have participated in this study in total, six politicians and two immigrants from each region. The representation of the interviewed politicians is one member of the Bayernpartei, one from the CSU, one from ERC, two from JxCat and one from CUP. One of them is a member of the central state parliament, one is a senator, another one is a member of a city’s council, one is a policy advisor of one of the parties, one is a foreign and security policy officer, and another one is a chairman of their political party. Several of them had experience with working in the field of immigration and one of them was responsible for founding an organisation aimed at promoting regionalism amongst immigrants. In order to keep the interviewees anonymous, they will be referred to with the help of their initials.

Once the data was collected, it was coded manually. The realized coding was mostly descriptive but also interpretative in some passages. This was the best coding strategy

(36)

28 because it allowed for a thorough and detailed conversion of information gathered into

generalizable concepts, which were identifiable in all the interviews. Based on the thematic analysis that was conducted, the following themes have been identified, manifesto and political stances on immigration, identity, language, the role of immigrants in regionalist identity building. These themes were created based on the responses that the interviewees gave while considering which topics seemed to be recurrent. These four themes make visible what the most mentioned topics are by the interviewees and condense the information into the different categories.

4.2 Quantitative Data

The data used for the quantitative analysis are surveys that were previously conducted by scholars in Catalonia and Bavaria, shortly before regional elections taking place. The Catalan 2012 study and the Bavarian 2013/2014 study were downloaded from the Making Electoral Democracy Work Database (MEDW, 2012) (MEDW, 2013-2014). The results of these studies were read and analysed with the help of the software STATA. The coding of both datasets was done to obtain the most accurate data to measure the immigrants’ support for regionalism in both regions. In order to explain how this coding was made it is relevant to familiarize ourselves with the variables used. The main independent variable for the

quantitative analysis were the immigrants in Catalonia and Bavaria. Those who answered that they were not born in Spain or Germany respectively, were coded as ‘immigrant’. It should be noted that for this study, those who were born in other parts of Spain or Germany were not considered immigrants and therefore not coded as such.

In addition, the dependent variables used in this study were chosen based on the idea of measuring the support of the immigrants to the most accurate extent possible. The first of the three dependent variables used in this part of the analysis is the predicted voting

behaviour of the immigrants. This variable was coded as ‘predicted vote’ and to distinguish the two categories of types of voting that are relevant for this study, the votes that went to regionalist parties were coded as ‘regional vote’. The variable ‘regional vote’ condensed the votes for the regionalist parties in each case study. In Bavaria, the only party that is identified as regionalist is the CSU. Although this might seem inconsistent with the way the Bavarian parties were categorized for the qualitative analysis, the absence of the Bayernpartei in this

Old meets New: Immigrants’ Attraction to Regionalism in Catalonia and Bavaria