Governing Migration at the Margins: Integration Politics in Catalonia’s Non-Urban Spaces

For decades, Catalonia appeared largely insulated from the far-right populism shaping anti-immigration agendas across Europe. Its sub-state nationalist project cultivated an image of the region as “a land of welcome,” presenting migration as compatible with Catalan nation-building. In recent years, however—particularly since the emergence of Aliança Catalana in 2020—both immigrant-integration policymaking and the narratives surrounding it have begun to shift. Small towns in economically marginalized areas, many of which only recently became migrant destinations while simultaneously grappling with economic decline and depopulation, have played a pivotal role in this transformation. These municipalities have become crucial arenas where regional integration policies are interpreted, negotiated, and contested, as well as spaces where new practices are developed and circulated. This paper examines how integration, reception, and social-cohesion policies, largely designed at the regional level, have been reframed in Ripoll and Manresa. Ripoll— a pre-Pyrenean town of roughly 10,000 inhabitants and a stronghold of the Catalan far right—recently elected the first Aliança Catalana mayor and is now promoted as a model for municipalities seeking to restrict migrants’ rights. Manresa, a medium-sized town of about 70,000 inhabitants governed by a left-leaning coalition, has pursued an agenda that advancse a more inclusive vision of immigrant integration, notably through efforts to foster interreligious dialogue and develop policies aimed at actively countering ethnic segregation. Drawing on interviews, media analysis, and grey literature, the article traces how integration and migration policies are being reworked in these peripheral localities. First, it examines how Catalonia’s sub-state nationalist framework—particularly its implicit delineation of who is welcome to become Catalan—is interpreted at the local level and shapes municipal approaches to integration. Second, it analyzes the evolving use of the Spanish Municipal Population Register (el padrón). Originally designed as a universal mechanism guaranteeing all residents—regardless of legal status—access to basic healthcare and children’s education, the padrón has, in some municipalities, been appropriated as a tool to monitor and regulate mobility or to discourage migrant arrivals, increasingly diverging from its original egalitarian intent. Lastly, the paper maps the spaces of contestation that have emerged in response to these shifts—particularly in contexts where far-right actors govern migration at the local level—thereby questioning the extent to which policy discourse can be effectively implemented in practice amid the contradictions and frictions inherent to multi-level governance of immigrant integration.