"A History of Catchments," by Sir C. M. Siervicül

In recent months, a number ofTalossans have expressed interest in reforming the provincial catchment areas. As a starting point for such a discussion, Beric'ht Talossan presents an overview of the current system of provincial assignment catchment areas and how it came to be. The current rules for provincial assignment are found in Title E, Immigration, of el Lexhatx, but the relevant sections of el Lexhatx grew out ofmany separate statutes enacted over the years.

The first known law addressing the assignment of citizens to provinces was 7RC22, the People to Provinces Act of 1 988. This law simply provided that a citizen would be “assigned to whatever Province that citizen lives in, or nearest to.” This established the basis of provincial assignment as theoretically geographical, but the details of implementation for citizens living outside Talossan territory were fuzzy. So 1 5PD30, You Are Where You Live, declared that citizens who live outside ofTalossa would be assigned to “the last province of residence or by agreement of the Cosa.” Formal geographic zones for provincial assignment were first defined in early 1 994 by 1 7RC1 8, the People to Provinces, Again, Act. The catchment areas were given pretty much their current form in 2003 by 31RZ28, the People To Provinces Fix-It Once and for All Act, except Fiova's catchment area was created in 201 2 by 43RZ25, the Take Me to the River Omnibus (as clarified by 44PD1, the Indians Are Maricopans Clarification Dictate).
The system of catchment areas looks a little like the layers of an onion. First, the actual territory ofTalossa is divided into the actual physical provinces (Map 1). Then, additional concentric “layers” of geographic units are allocated to the provinces for citizen assignment purposes. It is important to remember that these other units do not become part of the provinces. They are still non-Talossan territory, and are merely associated with the provinces for the purpose of assigning provincial citizenship to immigrants who live outside of Talossan territory.

The second layer is Milwaukee County, parts of which are assigned to Atatürk, Vuode, and Maritiimi-Maxhestic provinces. The third layer is the state of Wisconsin, which is divided by county among six provinces (Vuode and Fiova have no counties assigned). The division of counties has changed only once over the years. Map 2 shows the division as of 1 7RC1 8, among Atatürk, Benito, Maritiimi-Maxhestic, and Maricopa. Map 3 shows the division as of 23RZ42, the People To Provinces, Part IV (I Think) Act, enacted in early 1 998, which added Cézembre and Florencia to the map and is the division that persists to this day.

Fourth, the states of the United States besides Wisconsin are assigned to the provinces. All seven provinces apart from from Cézembre have states assigned. The original division, under 1 7RC1 8 (see Map 4) assigned states to Atatürk, Vuode, Maritiimi-Maxhestic, and Maricopa, but not Benito or Cézembre. (Curiously, Michigan's Upper Peninsula was assigned to Vuode, but it appears that the remainder of Michigan was not assigned to any province.) Florencia and Benito received allotments as of 23RZ22, the You Are Where You Live Act, Part Deux (see Map 5). This law divided California between the catchment areas of Florencia and Maricopa, but California was united in Maricopa's catchment area by 25RZ41, the You Are Where You Live Act, Pärts Tres. Most recently, states were taken from the catchment areas of Florencia and Maritiimi-Maxhestic via 43RZ25 to create a U.S. catchment area for newly-created Fiova Province (see Map 6).
Fifth and finally, the countries of the world outside the United States are assigned to the provinces. Individual countries are not divided between provinces, with three exceptions apart from the United States: the United Kingdom (with Northern Ireland and most of England going to Cézembre while Scotland, Wales, and Cornwall go to Atatürk), Cyprus (with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus going to Atatürk while the remainder of the island goes to Cézembre), and China (where the Xinjiang-Uygur region goes to Atatürk while the rest of the country goes to Fiova—the maps presented here do not show the internal division of China). Canada used to be another exception. Today all of Canada is in Atatürk's catchment area, but prior to 21RC36, the Canadaturk Act (Map 8), Ontario and provinces east belonged to Vuode.

Maps 7 through 1 3 depict key stages in the evolution of these global catchment areas. In the beginning, the entire world outside of North America was assigned to Cézembre. Over the years, Cézembre's catchment area has been whittled down as a larger and larger proportion of immigrants has come from outside of North America. This process took a massive leap with 31RZ28 (Map 11), when Cézembre lost all of its non-European territory (aside from eastern Russia) and significant parts of Europe as well. Map 8 shows how 21RC36 assigned the entire Southern Hemisphere (coloured pink) to Pengöpäts Territory. As shown in Map 9, this assignment was revoked as of 23RZ22, after the First Exodus and formation of Penguinea. But 23RZ22 did not specify what would happen to immigrants from the Southern Hemisphere, leaving that half of the globe in limbo (apart from the assignment of South America to Maricopa Province by 25RZ11 3, the You Are Where You Live Act, Part Four—Map 1 0) until the passage of 31RZ28 in 2003.

The process of provincial assignment is further complicated by legal mechanisms for closure of large provinces to immigration based on population ratios and exceptional assignment of new citizens who are related to current citizens. The first attempt to control population disparities between provinces was made in 1 997 with 23RZ6, the People to Provinces 2 (P2P2) Act, which would have specified a maximum percentage of the population for each province (and also would have allowed prospectives to otherwise freely choose assignment to any province) but failed to pass the Ziu. Provincial closure was successfully implemented by 27RZ5, the Revised Citizenship Assignments Act of 2000, which stated that any province with a population exceeding one-fifth of the total population is closed to immigration, and that any prospective that would have been assigned to a closed province would instead be assigned to the next province in order on a fixed list. 34RZ9, the People to Provinces (No More Microprovinces Act) changed the closure mechanism to require closure of a province to immigration when its population is twice the population of the smallest province. 44RZ1 8, Super-Concentrated Cleaning Action People-to-Provinces Reform Act, amended 34RZ9 to change the population ratio triggering closure from 2:1 to 3:1. And 34RZ23, the People to Provinces Improvement Act, and 43PD2, the Keeping Your Loved Ones Close Act, made it possible for immigrants with a close relative already in Talossa to choose to be assigned to the province of their relative rather than the province dictated by their place of residence. These laws, combined with the redrawing of catchment areas over time, account for the significant number of citizens with a provincial assignment that does not match their physical location.
The catchment history of the country, and the closure of provinces, is a complicated one, but hopefully this explanation and the accompanying maps has helped illuminate the history. From there, we can move forward to new solutions.