The Spanish government will not require Catalan for the regularization of immigrants

MadridWithin the framework of the regularization of half a million immigrants initiated by the Spanish government, the Generalitat has presented a series of amendments to the public hearing of the Royal Decree so that Catalan is taken into account when renewing residence permits. Specifically, they are requesting that Catalan language learning be assessed after one year. The Spanish government, through sources at the Ministry of Migration, assures that there is no final text yet and it is still being processed. However, they do warn that there will be no "obligation" to know Catalan or Spanish when granting residence to the half a million immigrants awaiting regularization, some 150,000 of whom are in Catalonia. "It is in the public consultation phase; different contributions will be accepted, which in no case include the obligation to know any official language to receive the initial residence and work permit," say the sources at Migration. In other words, they will not require either Catalan or Spanish when granting the permit.

The renewal of residence permits is another matter, which is what the Catalan government is demanding. Sources at the Immigration Department say that one year after regularization, the autonomous communities can extend the permit through a favorable integration report from social services, which, among other things, considers the learning of the official languages. In the case of the Generalitat (Catalan government), this is Catalan. In fact, This assessment is already in place, but in no case is the renewal of the residence permit denied if the person does not know Catalan..

Ayuso wants to take Sánchez to court

The ministry has clarified this point following a report fromABC which asserted that the president, Salvador Illa, would not regularize any immigrant who does not speak Catalan, and that the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, seized upon this by announcing that she would take the Spanish government to court.

In a tweet to X this Friday, Ayuso announced that she will appeal this request from the Generalitat (Catalan government) in court because it is an "illegality." "Pedro Sánchez's claim in Catalonia that language should be a requirement for accepting or rejecting immigrants is illegal [...]. The Community of Madrid will take the necessary steps in court against Sánchez to prevent this illegal and xenophobic notion," she said, ignoring the fact that the Generalitat's amendment does not demand mandatory language, but rather the requirement for the renewal of the permit one year later. The government's proposal stems from the National Pact for the Language.