The Basque exodus: 180,000 left and Euskadi never replaced them

180,000 Basques left and Euskadi found no replacement

The paradox is hard to swallow: the region that has most fiercely defended its identity is the one that has lost the most native population over half a century. Studies on the exodus point to some 180,000 Basques who left Euskadi in the 1980s and 1990s. In parallel, the territory has absorbed around 300,000 people of foreign origin, and the figure keeps rising. Two opposing movements on the same demographic scale, and neither steered by those who claimed to steer everything.

Why 180,000 Basques left Euskadi in the 80s and 90s

The 180,000 who left were not going on holiday. Much of that exodus is attributed to the pressure of the nationalist environment of those years and to violence, with episodes of threats against neighbours singled out for not toeing the dominant line. Against that reading, it is argued that there were also economic reasons and that the figure includes returns and job-related moves. Both things can be true, although only one of them gets mentioned at family dinners.

The phenomenon was not an isolated case. Historians and analysts have documented links between ETA and Latin American armed groups such as the Montoneros, with meetings in Euskadi to exchange tactics and knowledge in the handling of explosives. A detail circulating these days as a reminder that the past does not always ask permission to return.

How many Basques of native origin remain and why the figure is disputed

Here the ground gets slippery. It is argued that the descendants of the internal migration of the 1960s — those who arrived from other Spanish regions — already make up the majority of the population, and that Basques of stock predating that wave would not exceed 25%. It is a debatable estimate, without demographic consensus, mixing surnames, language and sense of belonging. But it serves a purpose: it shows that Basque identity, when measured, looks more like a recent construct than a sealed block.

Hence the time frame of the whole affair: the iron belt of 1936, the post-war period and the political cycle of Herri Batasuna (a Basque radical nationalist party) in the eighties and nineties.

Osakidetza, the RGI and a labour market nobody covers

The economic picture belies the paradise. More than 100,000 people applied for the latest Osakidetza (the Basque public health service) civil service exams, a sign of what the population wants: a permanent post, even if the pay is nothing to write home about. And Lanbide, the Basque employment service, admits it has problems locating thousands of recipients of the Renta de Garantía de Ingresos (a Basque minimum income scheme). Many of the jobs industry cannot fill are sustained by workers from elsewhere, fuelling a discussion nobody wants to have out loud.

Otegi's wall and the contradiction of the abertzale discourse

Arnaldo Otegi called in Bilbao for building an «antifascist, republican, abertzale (Basque patriot), feminist and socialist wall» inspired by the iron belt of 1936. The appeal to the defensive rampart coexists with a discourse demanding open borders, and that is the tension he is reproached for from several quarters. A phrase attributed to Otegi himself about who would serve the coffees on the terraces without immigrants is also circulating, turned into ammunition for both sides.

Even the image of the gudari (the Basque nationalist fighter) has become uncomfortable: the great-nephew of Sabino Arana, a tuna fisherman on the Gran Sol, facing the heir of Neguri fresh from the Jesuits of Deusto. Two Basques, two worlds, one flag.

Basque as the last marker

If there is one indicator that sums up the antiestéticar, it is the language. Basque depends on family transmission and on schools, and both narrow as the population ages and those arriving from outside do not adopt it as their own. They say it will soon only be heard in the same old bars, among the same old crowd. That may be an exaggeration. It may also be the only demographic prediction nobody disputes.

Is the Basque decline a management failure, an identity exaggeration, or simply the price of living in the country one voted for?