Catalan and immigrants: expectations versus reality

BarcelonaHave the international migration waves – the arrival of 3.7 million foreigners in 25 years, of whom 1.7 million have stayed to live in Catalonia – played a role?– Are the expectations surrounding the linguistic hegemony of Catalan definitively changing? This is the key question posed by the debate on immigration and language held Tuesday afternoon at the Institute for Catalan Studies (IEC), as part of a series of discussions organized by the institute and the newspaper ARA. The atmosphere is undoubtedly pessimistic, but constructive.

"What has happened in the last 25 years cannot be explained by immigration, but rather by the crisis of the demographic and social reproduction system," stated demographer Andreu Domingo, deputy director of the Center for Demographic Studies and vice president of the IEC. State hostility, the loss of Catalan as a means of social advancement, and the adoption of neoliberal logic, which has led to cuts, precarious employment, and disinvestment in areas such as culture, healthcare, and education, have brought the language to its current state: "The expectations we had regarding linguistic normalization and helimony simply don't exist, and the arrival of migrants only highlights this," argues Domingo, who points to residential and occupational segregation as factors that hinder immigrants' access to Catalan.

The figures are key to understanding the extent of Spanish's dominance in a multinational environment. One in four inhabitants of Catalonia, the Valencian Community, and the Balearic Islands was born abroad, 40% of whom are Latin American, with Spanish as their primary language. 57% of immigrants declare Spanish as their main language. Those who arrived from Spain use Spanish in 85% of cases. Sociolinguist Natxo Sorolla warns about this "linguistic asymmetry" in favor of Spanish, a result of the marginalization of a language that is both widely spoken and widely spoken. The professor at the University of Zaragoza advocates a model of "self-centered multilingualism," in which the native language should play a central role and which should be governed by the principle of subsidiarity: "Everything that can be done in Catalan should be done in Catalan." Sorolla observes that Catalan "does not have discriminatory capacity, that is, if you want to integrate it you must learn it," and this is not the fault of migrants but of public policies.

One innovative aspect is the gender perspective: Sorolla has highlighted the large number of women in the basic Catalan courses. "We must take into account the affective component of language learning." –Domingo added–For many, Catalan courses are the first friendly face they see from the administration. Sorolla believes that elementary courses "cannot be a language school," but rather must be aware that immigrants need them to establish roots and be supported in further developing their knowledge of the language.

Domingo warned that "the battle of the future will be fought in the arena of historical memory": forgetting that immigration has been essential for the country "is the most direct path to marginalization." The demographer argues that "migration must be understood as a foundational phenomenon of contemporary Catalan identity, which is alive and constantly evolving," and that "21st-century Catalan identity must be linked to an inclusive political and social project, capable of combining equality, recognition, and linguistic justice." Sorolla added that language remains an essential pillar of Catalan identity: "Identity is intimately linked to language use."