Internal enemies or new allies?

Immigrants and Basque radical nationalism (1959-1979)

Abstract

One of the pillars of Basque nationalism was the rejection of the Spanish immigrants who went to the Basque country (antimaketismo). In the 1950s and 60s the flow of immigrants almost doubled the population in the Basque Country. At the same time ETA, the core of radical Basque nationalism, came into being. In this article, the authors study how this political sector dealt with the phenomenon of immigration and if Sabino Arana’s xenophobia has been adopted in its ideological assumptions in one way or another. Documents of ETA and parties which supported this organization (particularly HB) will be analyzed, dating from the foundation of ETA (1959) to the approval of the Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Country (1979).