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This article examines the discursive and political response to immigrant-generated diversity byPartido Nacionalista Vasco(PNV) in the Basque Country of Spain. A much-ballyhooed fact about PNV is that its founder, Sabino Arana, articulated a racist nationalist doctrine in the late nineteenth century. Alarm bells were raised in the early 2000s when the Basque Country became a destination for foreign immigrants arriving in Spain from Latin America and North Africa: do foreign immigrants pose a threat to Basque national identity? The PNV's answer to this question has been a clear ‘no’. Rather than distance itself from its past, however, party elites legitimate the inclusive and compassionate attitude towards foreign immigrants through selective discovery of the Basque national narrative. While sceptics of ideational variables are quick to suggest that nationalist elites manipulate the past to serve current purposes, this article suggests that such an interpretation does not do justice to the subtle ways in which symbols, myths, and images of the past have shaped the worldviews of PNV elites in the realm of immigration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article builds on recent attempts to explain why sub-state nationalist parties in West Europe and North America pursue varying discourses and policies in response to immigrant-generated diversity. It analyses the dynamics of immigrant integration in two comparable cases of sub-state nationalism: Catalonia and the Basque Country. In contrast to the hypothesis that sub-state nationalism and immigration are inherently antagonistic, nationalist parties in both cases have experimented with multiculturalism to make diversity a new marker of national identity. The recent assimilationist turn in Catalonia, however, demonstrates that regional electoral competition can sometimes complicate matters of identity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Basque nationalism is singled out in the literature as a case of minority nationalism that faces an ongoing struggle between those in support of a liberal-inclusive definition of the nation and those favouring an exclusive-racialist one. Nevertheless, Basque nationalist parties have been welcoming of immigration and have legislated to create a regional citizenship based on residence rather than ethnicity. This article argues that, at least in part, the ‘positive’ response of Basque nationalists to the immigration wave that began in the early 2000s is an attempt to strengthen national solidarity by contrasting Basque values of openness and tolerance against the restrictive nature of the reforms to the immigration law in Spain that were initiated in 2000. This argument challenges the notion that sub-state nationalists are hostile to immigration because of the threat diversity poses to the nationalist project. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]