Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones: "The ECHR opens the door to demanding the official status of Catalan throughout the State"

BarcelonaThe same day that the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) backed the 25% of Spanish in classrooms, Barcelona brought together the main experts in linguistic diversity in an international forum organized by Linguapax and financed, precisely, with European Union funds. One of the speakers was the Welsh sociolinguist Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones, president of the European Language Equality Network (ELEN) and director of the Centre for Welsh and Celtic Studies, who knows the Catalan case in depth – and, moreover, also speaks it.

Catalonia is in shock over the argument of the European Court of Human Rights, which considers that linguistic immersion in Catalan discriminates against students from the rest of the State.

— It is evident that the court does not understand the immersion model, nor the results it seeks – that students become bilingual by the end of compulsory studies – nor the methodology used. Furthermore, it is important for coexistence and social cohesion that future adults, future workers, have the opportunity to know the official language of the territory and the official language of the State. And it is a system that works well.

You have been a great defender of the Catalan immersion.

— Yes, totally. The ECHR shows that it also does not understand how the model of an official language at state level and a language that is official in its territory works. And, therefore, we must consider whether the objective now is to achieve official status at the State level for so-called regional languages.

In other words, would you ask to review article 3 of the Constitution which states that Spanish is the official language of the entire State and that Catalan is official in its territory?

— Yes, because it seems that the ECHR's decision opens the door to this issue. In Belgium, we have a federal state with three languages, German, Flemish or Dutch, and French, which are official at the state level, but have their official use in different territories. Well, it seems to me that this is the way, if we want to legislate on the use of languages so that children have the capacity to express themselves in two official languages. The other way is an independent state.

We have already tried this one.

— So if the State wants its territory intact, it must recognize the official status in the entire territory of the languages that are official there.

From ELEN, you must have looked closely at the ECtHR's decision because it could be a precedent for other European territories, such as Wales.

— Yes, in many places immersion is normal and in some places, in fact, it is an objective. We must remember that linguistic immersion is not only for families or students who do not speak the minority language at home, but also serves students who do speak it, because without formal education one cannot become functional in both languages. Furthermore, we know that immersion does not mean using only one language 100% of the time, because we live in bilingual and trilingual environments. Therefore, there are no monolingual schools in Welsh or Catalan; in any case, they are monolingual schools in English and Spanish [respectively].

The verdict has no direct effects on the school, but it is true that one went to the European Court seeking arguments in defense of immersion and returns with contrary arguments. Was it a bad strategy to go to a court that legislates on individual rights and not on collective rights?

— Yes. In the case of minority languages, the path of individual rights is not enough because language is a social phenomenon. We learn Catalan or Welsh within the family, in the social environment, at school, or with a combination of the three factors. Therefore, to reproduce language as a social phenomenon, we need rights and structures that recognize that we are a collective and not a set of individuals.

The court clearly speaks of "state language" and "regional language", even though Catalan and Spanish are equally official in Catalonia.

— Linguistic diversity movements or movements for minority languages have accepted the terminology of regional languages or minority languages, as in the case of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, although we use the terminology of minorized languages or endangered languages. But it is evident that this terminology is now used against linguistic diversity and, therefore, it is time to change the terminology. Catalan is an official language, like Spanish; it is not co-official. If they are official languages, they should be official at the state level.

We are talking about Europe. Do you think we will see the official status of Catalan, Basque and Galician in Europe?

— I would have said yes, but I think we are now living in a very difficult moment with the far-right and everything will depend on Spain's economic and political influence. It depends on what happens in Israel, in Ukraine, on the relationship with the United States and the economy, Iran... and on the degree of priority of the Spanish state. The Irish presidency of the European Union is coming up and it's a good time to pressure, but if there is no agreement before the end of the year, I don't know if there will be another opportunity [in 2027 it's Lithuania and Greece's turn].

From this Linguapax forum, we debate how to face the current global crisis of linguistic diversity. What global arguments are in vogue?

— European movements in favour of minority languages argue that language is everyone's heritage and that we, who live in the territory, have a responsibility to promote and defend it. Just as we have a responsibility for the sustainability of the planet, we also have a responsibility for linguistic sustainability towards future generations. Activists know that, to achieve this, we need education, media, technology, local and legal administration, all the traditional fields of language planning, but we also need to consider the economy or housing; because if the expats come and buy everything, then what? From the outset, the activist movement in Wales is a holistic movement.

I don't know if entrusting linguistic revitalization to the idea of social justice is a bit naive, considering that the world is leaning towards commodification, homogenization, and very strong economic and ideological dynamics.

— I believe it is fundamental. A slogan of the Welsh movement is "If the Welsh language is to live, everything must change" (Os yw'r Gymraeg i fyw, rhaid i bopeth newid; because the Welsh language survives, everything must change). And what we see is that, little by little, over the years, the discourse of activism enters government and, for example, in Wales taxes are being modified. The role of activism is to push. In the case of a language like Catalan, Basque or Welsh, sometimes we have to function as if we had our own state. We must be able to be with Danish, Finnish, Slovenian, Maltese or Icelandic, for example, and not with languages that have more social and political power than us.

If I go on holiday to Cardiff this summer, will I hear much Welsh?

— Today perhaps yes, thirty years ago, perhaps no. It's a bit like Bilbao, where sometimes yes and sometimes no. But in the Cardiff area there are more Welsh speakers now than ten years ago. For two reasons: for amplification of the immersion system in schools and for internal immigration from other more Welsh-speaking areas towards Cardiff capital. 55% of Welsh speakers live in areas where less than 40% of the population speaks it.

If in Catalonia there is already a certain invasion of English, how does Wales manage to coexist with such a hegemonic language?

— It is a very, very big challenge. Because, moreover, English is also a Welsh language. We are now showing that our Welsh immersion educational model is not a barrier to obtaining a total knowledge of English. Therefore, it is a bilingualism accepted by society, but we have problems implementing it.

For the moment, only one in four families chooses the immersion model.

— The objective is for 50% of the school population to have the Welsh immersion model and for, little by little, more Welsh to enter the other 50%, which has the bilingual model [with a percentage of subjects in Welsh] or the Anglophone model [which has only the Welsh subject]. The objective of the education law is for all models to tend towards more Welsh and less towards English, and even for schools to evolve their model.

This May, the nationalist party Plaid Cymru has won the elections in Wales for the first time, breaking 27 years of Labour power. What does this change with Rhun ap Iorwerth as prime minister mean?

— In this legislature they have expressly said that there will be no consultation or referendum. I believe we still don't understand the change, because everything is very new. I believe that the entire government is Welsh-speaking, most of them since childhood, and they say they use Welsh in government meetings.

Is this change encouraging for the language?

— I think so, but we want to see a change in the lives of ordinary people. Our language is official, but educational provision varies by region and some have done nothing to increase the number of schools in the Welsh language. There are areas where, if you want an immersion school, you have to travel for an hour by bus. And you cannot do extracurricular activities in Welsh. If you live in a family where Welsh is not spoken and you cannot use Welsh as a social language, how can you develop your identity in this language?

How is the rise of the anti-European far-right in the United Kingdom experienced from Wales?

— The far-right Reform UK is the second party in the Welsh Parliament, with 34 seats out of 96. And the governing party has 43. The anti-immigration and anti-refugee narrative is very present in the Welsh context, and I believe that parties that are against it must work together. The change of government can amplify the positioning against the discourse of the far-right and against the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Let's remember that former Prime Minister Theresa May already proclaimed that she wanted to create a hostile environment for immigration. It is very dangerous.