Carlos

All taxes are forced wealth transfers, right? Catalonians are still going to be paying taxes one way or the other. The only difference is that now they don't get Spain interefering, for good or bad, in their local goverment. This is very convenient for a handful of very well-off Catalonian politicians. I'm not sure the average slave or serf would have a wage worth mentioning, let alone taxing. London is a tax haven, isn't it? So how unfriendly a place is London to not-so-productive people or migrants?

Hello, The Catalonian secessionists themselves don't clearly state why they want independence. The catchphrase "Spain is stealing from us" is one of their strongest points, but they avoid debating this in public because it's full of fallacies. Otherwise, it's one of the most prosperous regions of Spain, very industrialized and the Catalonians are definately an innovative and intelligent people. But they are not ethnically different nor significantly culturally distinct from other Iberian regions, and their economy depends largely on exports to Spain and the trade between Spain and France that goes through Catalonia. They are not more exploited, taxed or oppressed than any other Spaniard or EU citizen for that matter. In fact, it's probably one of the best parts of Western Europe to live in all things considered. The underlying motives for secession are more likely to do with creating a strong centralized state free from Spanish intervention, perhaps part of the region to become a tax-haven and to severely damage Spain's economy. Of course, this is just speculation on my part. Once independent we'll see how they treat those regions within Catalonia that will want their own regional independence or to reunite with Spain. This will certainly happen. About immigration: Spain isn't much of a migrant destination as compared to France, Germany or the UK. Welfare for immigrants is limited in quantity and time as far as I can tell. Catalonia seemingly favours Muslim immigration over spanish speaking Latinos because Arab and Urdu speakers will prefer to learn Catalonian than Spanish and so fully integrate. I'm not sure this is true, but that's what I've heard and I've seen a ton of Pakistani, Senegalese and Morrocan immigrants in Catalonian towns and farms. If anything, the Catalonians want Spain to take in more immigrants and refugees. Take for example this march in February 2017: " More than 160,000 march in Barcelona to demand Spain takes in more refugees " Nothing is as it seems, only critical thinking can save the West.

Hello saebel, very nicely put. Mi primer post por aqui. This situation is very worrying and it has been handled terribly by the present spanish goverment. They've let this cancer grow unchecked for decades and now we get to foot the bill. At this point an independent Catalonia is going to happen sooner or later. They are indoctrinating the new generations with a fantasy-history, victim-history and a long list of ridiculous claims about their supposed superior ethnicity and culture, and eventually they will get their winning referendum. I live in Aragon, I've been to Catalonia for both pleasure and work on many occasions and I really like it there. This makes me very sad and deeply worried about our future. Saludos.