Language, Schooling, and Support for Secession: Migrant Territorial Preferences in Catalonia

Over the past decades, independence movements in various stateless nations have sparked debate and widespread political action. At the same time, many of these regions have experienced significant increases in immigration. This raises a key question: how do international migrants orient themselves politically and decide what territorial preferences they hold – whether for or against the independence projects of their new places of residence? Building on research that highlights the identity-shaping effects of regional language (RL) education (Clots‐Figueras & Masella, 2013; Clua i Fainé, 2017), I hypothesize that migrants who underwent RL-medium education are more likely to support their region’s independence or increased autonomy than those who did not receive schooling in the language. Furthermore, extending the work of Wilson-Daily and Kemmelmeier (2020), I argue that an individual’s linguistic background moderates this policy’s effect. Using Catalonia as a case, I propose that migrants whose mother tongue is Spanish are less influenced by the identity-building impact of RL education and are therefore less likely to support Catalan independence. Preliminary results are consistent with the proposed hypotheses and various territorial preference-based checks suggest these are robust relationships. This paper contributes to debates on the efficacy of language and education policy as a nation-building tool, as well as the political socialization of migrants in regions with distinct national identities.