Could Catalonia force foreigners to learn Catalan?

Following several concessions from the Spanish government, Catalan separatists now want to create their own immigration agency with the power to set quotas and make it compulsory for foreign residents to have Catalan language lessons.

The proposed agency would be a ‘one-stop shop’ for all immigration matters in the region, and take over responsibility for managing immigration flows, numbers, and providing resources to ensure integration in language and civic values.
Reports in the Spanish media suggest that one of these requirements could be making it compulsory for immigrants in the region to learn Catalan.
Though the full details will remain unclear until the conference, party sources told Spanish daily El Mundo that “there will be a duty to know and use Catalan and they will have the right to be given courses to learn it.”
READ ALSO: Spanish vs Catalan: Which language should you learn if you live in Barcelona?
Learning Catalan, the party believes, will create a “process of civic integration, not assimilation.” In August the neighbouring principality of Andorra set minimum Catalan language requirements for foreign residents.
INE data shows that Catalonia has a foreign-born population of 22.4 percent while the Spanish average is 14 percent. Political signalling in recent years shows that Junts now considers immigration among its top priorities.
This is especially true after the far-right pro-independence party Aliança Catalana entered the regional parliament and is making inroads in the inland areas of Catalonia, traditional Junts heartlands.
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Regional party, national politics
The key to understanding these demands is the role of Catalan separatists at the national level. Following an inconclusive general election in the summer of 2023, Junts, along with Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), a more moderate left-wing separatist party, backed Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialists (PSOE) and essentially lent him the votes he needed to stay on in government.
This support was conditional on Madrid giving greater powers to the Catalonia region, and since then the Sánchez government has been dependent on separatist votes to pass legislation in the Spanish Congress.
If Spain’s PM doesn’t continue to make concessions, Junts and ERC could in theory topple the government.
The most notable and controversial concession Sánchez made was the legal amnesty for independence leaders involved in the 2017 referendum, but the uneasy arrangement has also garnered greater powers over regional transport and the demand for financiación singular — ‘singular financing’.
That is about how Catalonia raises and uses taxes, and whether or not it should be allowed greater fiscal autonomy closer to something like the Basque model.
READ ALSO: The plan for Catalonia to handle its own finances separately from Spain
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Junts is confident that Catalonia will soon be given “comprehensive powers” over immigration based on the deal Junts and the government agreed in January in exchange for supporting anti-crisis decrees in Congress.
Salvador Illa, the PSOE president of Catalonia, is also dependent on separatist parties in the regional executive. Though PSOE won the regional election in May it lacked a majority, so instead relied on the support of ERC to form a government.
In return the PSOE promised to grant Catalonia full control of taxes. Junts also kept the role of speaker in the chamber after Catalan lawmakers elected Josep Rull, a Junts member, making the situation more fragile still.
Supporters of Sánchez argue Illa’s victory signified the end of the procés and turned a page on the Catalan question. Critics argue the slow drip feed of concessions to separatists is essentially independence by stealth.
Despite being as far from power as it has in over a decade, Junts is preparing policies for its conference and now seems to be preparing some big demands from Sánchez on immigration.
READ ALSO:

Which Catalans want independence from Spain?
Is Catalonia slowly becoming independent on the sly?

#Politics
#Catalonia
#barcelona
#Learning Spanish

Comments (1)

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Kerry Gubits

2024/10/01 18:43

I recently posted a sign outside my building to inform delivery people that our doorbell and remote door unlock system was broken. The sign was in Spanish. Someone wrote on it, “En Catalá, si us plau.”

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Catalan separatists are proposing the creation of an independent Catalan immigration agency and could even force immigrants in the northern region to learn Catalan.
This follows the recent publication of three working papers by Junts per Catalunya, the Catalan separatist party led by fugitive from justice Carles Puigdemont.
Despite Junts being out of power and Puigdemont out of the country in exile again, the party has started outlining policies for its upcoming party conference at the end of October, knowing full well that any demands it makes can be used as political bargaining chips at the national level.
These include lower taxes, more police resources, property protections, anti-squatter laws, and, most interestingly, greater control of immigration through the creation of a regional immigration agency with the power to set quotas and requirements.
READ ALSO: EU states reluctant to add Catalan as official language
The proposed agency would be a ‘one-stop shop’ for all immigration matters in the region, and take over responsibility for managing immigration flows, numbers, and providing resources to ensure integration in language and civic values.
Reports in the Spanish media suggest that one of these requirements could be making it compulsory for immigrants in the region to learn Catalan.
Though the full details will remain unclear until the conference, party sources told Spanish daily El Mundo that “there will be a duty to know and use Catalan and they will have the right to be given courses to learn it.”
READ ALSO: Spanish vs Catalan: Which language should you learn if you live in Barcelona?
Learning Catalan, the party believes, will create a “process of civic integration, not assimilation.” In August the neighbouring principality of Andorra set minimum Catalan language requirements for foreign residents.
INE data shows that Catalonia has a foreign-born population of 22.4 percent while the Spanish average is 14 percent. Political signalling in recent years shows that Junts now considers immigration among its top priorities.
This is especially true after the far-right pro-independence party Aliança Catalana entered the regional parliament and is making inroads in the inland areas of Catalonia, traditional Junts heartlands.
Regional party, national politics
The key to understanding these demands is the role of Catalan separatists at the national level. Following an inconclusive general election in the summer of 2023, Junts, along with Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), a more moderate left-wing separatist party, backed Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialists (PSOE) and essentially lent him the votes he needed to stay on in government.
This support was conditional on Madrid giving greater powers to the Catalonia region, and since then the Sánchez government has been dependent on separatist votes to pass legislation in the Spanish Congress.
If Spain’s PM doesn’t continue to make concessions, Junts and ERC could in theory topple the government.
The most notable and controversial concession Sánchez made was the legal amnesty for independence leaders involved in the 2017 referendum, but the uneasy arrangement has also garnered greater powers over regional transport and the demand for financiación singular — ‘singular financing’.
That is about how Catalonia raises and uses taxes, and whether or not it should be allowed greater fiscal autonomy closer to something like the Basque model.
READ ALSO: The plan for Catalonia to handle its own finances separately from Spain
Junts is confident that Catalonia will soon be given “comprehensive powers” over immigration based on the deal Junts and the government agreed in January in exchange for supporting anti-crisis decrees in Congress.
Salvador Illa, the PSOE president of Catalonia, is also dependent on separatist parties in the regional executive. Though PSOE won the regional election in May it lacked a majority, so instead relied on the support of ERC to form a government.
In return the PSOE promised to grant Catalonia full control of taxes. Junts also kept the role of speaker in the chamber after Catalan lawmakers elected Josep Rull, a Junts member, making the situation more fragile still.
Supporters of Sánchez argue Illa’s victory signified the end of the procés and turned a page on the Catalan question. Critics argue the slow drip feed of concessions to separatists is essentially independence by stealth.
Despite being as far from power as it has in over a decade, Junts is preparing policies for its conference and now seems to be preparing some big demands from Sánchez on immigration.
READ ALSO:

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