A Success Story: Spanish immigration to Catalonia (In Transit #25)

Hope, dreams and the building of Catalonia
A success story: Spanish immigration to Catalonia issue #25 - March 2014
The military coup led by Franco against the legitimate
government of the Popular Front (Frente Popular) on July
18th, 1936, sparked a bloody civil war, and the outcome
was the displacement of thousands of people from the
less-developed (or non-industrialized) areas of Spain to
Catalonia beginning in 1950. Those who came to Catalonia
were mainly from Andalucia (some 890,000 people),
but also from Murcia, Extremadura, Aragon, Galicia and
Castille.
After nearly three years of military and civilian
confrontation, thousands of dead and countless exiles, a
repressive, authoritarian and fascist regime established
itself, led by a soldier and supported by a single political
party, the Movimiento Nacional (National Movement),
which represented the various social sectors that made up
the winning bloc of the war.
The Franco regime eradicated the agrarian reform that the Frente Popular had advocated for (the land would
belong to those who worked the land). This caused those territories where the land was a source of wealth
to continue to be in the hands of a few: landowners, señoritos (wealthy gentlemen), and caciques; a breed of
people that closely resembled free-riding and that was not up to the hard work of developing productivity.
Therefore, the large number of immigrants that settled in Catalonia between 1950 and 1970 are mostly
descendants of the losers of the Civil War, and not “fifth columnists” that the laboratories of the Franco regime
manufactured to fight the Catalan language or to stifle the Catalan people’s desire for freedom. There were also
losers in Catalonia: the lower classes and the workers. Let us not forget, as well, that part of the wealthy class
in Catalonia supported the military coup.
It is true that in order to replace the Republican teachers in Catalonia, Franco’s regime placed teachers from
other parts of Spain who belonged to the Falange in the so-called nationalist schools. It is also true that
Francoism also reached for judges, police, and trade unionists that were pro-Franco and various others who
ended up in Catalonia and who helped the new regime get started: civil service officers for the diputaciones,
civil governments, municipal secretaries… At the same time, we should not confuse these replacements with
the great majority of Spanish immigrants who, within a week, went from being farm workers to factory workers
without any professional qualifications.
Catalonia and its history show us how it has grown. Without the “anchor” of the various migratory waves, today
we would be a country with far less strength and fewer possibilities. Therefore, this country, our country, has
been built by all those people who arrived together and worked side by side in the factories and neighborhoods
with the people who were already here, and with those who came afterwards. It has been a successful experience,
without any significant mishaps or deep-rooted conflicts.
The Catalan co-productive system is exemplary: countless mixed marriages have led to a patchwork that has
given us a seamless canvas, a dovetail that has blocked any attempt to shatter this social cohesion. For the
new arrivals, if this new land offers them a school, a home and a job, they engage and identify with life here
without great difficulties. We should remember that it was in the town of Santa Coloma de Gramenet where
people first demanded schooling in Catalan. This event, which then spread throughout Catalonia and with a
significant parliamentary majority behind it, led to one of the most important successes of President Pujol
during those years: linguistic immersion. It was a significant step that overcame the attempts to divide the
country on grounds of language. One country, one people, and therefore only one way of accessing the school
system, and no talk of two or three separate “itineraries.”
Thismeantthatlotsofimmigrants,intheirnewneighborhoods,becamepartoflocalneighborhoodassociations,
which were the engines behind the struggle for improved living conditions in places lacking the most basic
services.
The same thing occurred in the factories, where hundreds of people of non-Catalan descent were integrated into
the first workers’ commissions that faced the companies, fighting for the freedom of unions and the freedom to
call a strike, which were prohibited by the Franco regime. Here we should also mention another large group of
people who arrived from other parts of Spain and connected with clandestine Catalan political organizations
and went on to join those fighting to overthrow Franco’s dictatorship. A relevant fact in the neighborhood
associations, workers’ committees and political groups in hiding: no one asked about a person’s birthplace. On
all three fronts, Catalans and immigrants fraternally embraced each other, and never discriminated against
anyone based ontheir last name.There were commonobjectives, which is something the Asamblea de Catalunya
(Catalan Assembly) would go on to express as follows: freedom, amnesty, statute of autonomy and the right
to exercise self-determination. The latter was relegated and forgotten once the first three had been achieved.
Lluís Cabrera, President of the platform Altres Andalusos (Other Andalucians)
seven communities, one language
eurocatalan newsletter
EDITORIAL

The PSA, Partido Socialista Andaluz (Socialist Party of Andalucia) ran in the Catalan Parliament elections of
1980 in an attempt to generate confusion and discord in the metropolitan areas of Barcelona and Tarragona.
According to the PSA, people from Andalucia should vote for a political party with a designation of origin.
We would have to go as far back as the political tenets of the Partido Radical (Radical Party) of Alejandro
Lerroux to understand how much of a torpedo the PSA was to the stability and cohesion of Catalan society
in 1980. The operation failed in the end. With only two MPs in Parliament, the PSA couldn’t hold its ground
in the following autonomous elections in 1984, in which CiU obtained its first absolute majority. The fear of
a possible division, embodied by the PSA with its arguments in favor of place of origin and that advocated
isolating the social interests that each party represented, was settled in a single legislature.
The beloved Transition, the arrival of Tarradellas to the Palau de la Generalitat in 1977, was a giant step
forward that made it appear that the Spanish state recognized the legality of the Republic. The ghosts of the
coup d’état on February 23rd (23F) of 1981, which served to allow television, the only one there was at that
time, to show the monarch as a defender and savior of democracy, the same person appointed by Franco and
the Cortes (Parliament) of his Movimiento Nacional party. All of this became a kind of cement that numbed
us to what was happening. He was a monarch accepted by weakened political forces fresh from the political
catacombs, forces that made pacts with Adolfo Suárez’s Unión de Centro Democrático party and Manuel
Fraga Iribarne’s Alianza Popular party, both descendants of the Franco regime.
This was what ended up being called the constitutional pact. A constitutional pact that, over the years, was
found to have been an infringement on political and economic interests, and to have been an attack on the
dignity of all the citizens of Catalonia, regardless of their last name or birthplace. It was a constitutional pact
that buried memories and imposed silence on many aspects of the immediate past.
Over time, and after the alternation in 2006 –the first tripartite government--, the new political power of
Catalonia led by President Maragall began the reform of the Catalan Statute of Autonomy, a journey full of
obstacles, obstruction, and some irony (the final “scrubbing”), the collection of signatures against the reform
by the PP, and the Constitutional Court’s final sentence that overrode the 1979 Statute that was still valid. It
was a process that a significant part of the population of Catalonia, and also the children and grandchildren of
those who arrived between 1950 and 1970, saw as an attack on their freedom, on democracy and the individual
and collective dignity of this nation, which belongs to everyone. Because while each person has their own
special connections and feelings, we have shared political aspirations regardless of where our ancestors were
born. It is in Catalonia where we exercise our political rights, and therefore, we are all politically Catalan.
It is in Catalonia where we bury and mourn our grandparents and parents, a significant fact that shows our
attachment to this country.
Since 2006 the demonstrations have worked with tenacity to resurrect the fourth point of the Asamblea de
Catalunya, the right to exercise self-determination. The path widened even further after September 11th, 2012
andthe Catalan Wayof 2013,two landmarksinEuropean history,two milestones inanation’s peaceful struggle
to achieve freedom. Catalonia has seen how the elites and centralist oligarchies in Madrid are not willing to
give up their privileges: to distribute political power and share decision-making on economic matters. And
when a nation’s people are deprived of the right to decide their future, democracy is undermined and their
dignity is trampled upon. This is when the ties woven over time come to the surface, and on the table once
again there is the hope, the dream and the wish to build a society that is not dependent, a society with a State
of its own, a normal nation, that’s it, a nation like any other, which doesn’t depend on the decisions made six
hundred kilometers away, a smaller and more manageable country.
However, those of us who are involved in the current pro-sovereignty process should avoid the following at all
costs, as it would work against us and because the consequences would be disastrous:
-Thatweshouldnotstigmatize-ongroundsoflanguage-theelderly(ourgrandparentsandgreatgrandparents)
living in the Catalan neighborhoods where unemployment is raging. These veterans have worked very hard to
move Catalonia forward, and they have nothing in common with others who also usually express themselves
in Castilian: senior military officers and members of the courts of justice, to give a couple of examples.
- That political, academic, economic and social institutions should not demand that Castilian language have a
role in an independent Catalan state. Castilian should be a heritage, and never an obstacle.
- That Catalan political parties of a pro-Catalanist nature should not make orphans of those people who use
Castilian as their primary language. These political parties should also not allow unionist parties such as the
PP, UpyD and Cs become the “owners” of what is a universal language.
- That we remain oblivious to the fact that today the Catalan “elevator”, which was what permitted social
mobility and permeability, is broken, that we don’t know how to fix it and that without it working it will be
very difficult to incorporate people most affected by the crisis into Catalonia’s independence process.
- And another danger: those who want a pure Catalonia are a hindrance, not a help. Catalonia is not, thankfully,
a corporation ruled by the people with the most shares. This characteristic is typical of corporations, not
states. Each vote carries the same weight and makes us equals when it comes time to decide, and it would be
better if we didn’t copy the Francoist models still entrenched in Spain today.
We do not differentiate, we are not afraid, we continue to offer examples of good practices, of civility, of
common sense. We reject hatred and self-hatred, let us travel paths of harmony, ley us continue with the
process, as it allows all of us to participate no matter what your social position. Let us not get stuck defining
identity and culture, both are permeable and made up of different and complex layers, each equal and different
at the same time. Let us look to the Mediterranean, the waves mark a harmonious rhythm.
Lluís Cabrera Sánchez
President of the platform Altres Andalusos (Other Andalucians)

Susana Díaz’s ‘foreigners’
This weekend Susana Díaz, the president
of the Junta de Andalucía, participated in
an event held by the PSC in L’Hospitalet de
Llobregat. It’s nothing new. From time to
time the PSC decides that it is a good idea
for the president of Andalucía to attend an
event in the Barcelona metropolitan area,
to appease those who they like to call the
“Andalusians living in Catalonia.” As if we
weren’t Catalan enough to keep up with
current political events in the country
where we live, and we needed someone,
with a hint of local color to them, to remind
us from time to time that we aren’t part of this society.
They are the ones who feel the need to go on emphasizing these differences. Those who think that we couldn’t
possibly be interested in a political rally held by Pere Navarro, Artur Mas or Oriol Junqueras, and that they will
make us happy by bringing in the President of Andalusia and a handful of olés!. They are the ones who refer
to us and to our parents as “Andalusians in Catalonia,” and not as Catalans of Andalusian descent. And on top
of that, they have the nerve to come here and tell us that if Catalonia becomes independent, we will become
foreigners in our own country.
In the Catalonia that we catalanoandaluces (Catalan-Andalusians) will build, we will not be foreigners because
we are already part of the process that is leading us to independence. Our vote in the referendum will have
the exact same weight as someone with four Catalan grandparents. All of us, all Catalans, will be deciding this
together, regardless of our origins. And the country we are going to build will be a country for everyone.
The same president of Andalucía also says that the process will force us to choose an identity. Señora Díaz, no
one can force me to choose because my identity, like that of most Catalans, is multiple and plural. I am as much
a Catalan as I am an Andalusian. However, when the President of Andalucía comes to visit us like a mother
visiting her prodigal son, yes, it makes me feel less Catalan. It makes me feel like a second-class Catalan citizen.
We Catalans of Andalusian origin do not need anyone to come here and remind us were we come from, because
we have no doubt about that and we are very proud of our roots. But above all, we don’t need anyone to tell us
where we are heading, because that is something we will choose, democratically, with the rest of the Catalans.
Opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect
the position of SÚMATE as a collective.
First published in SÚMATE.
Héctor Montero
FURTHER READING

Welcome, Mister Rajoy
This weekend the PP has landed in Barcelona
with all of their artillery (metaphorically
speaking). They will be celebrating an “anti-pro-
sovereignty convention,” under the banner of
Juntos sumamos (“Stronger together”), to show
their opposition to Catalan independence and
to sell us on the benefits of remaining within
Spain. Perhaps they’re here to reveal their
“secret plan” for Catalonia, as Rajoy announced
this week. What better way to make it public
than coming to this wayward province to announce it personally to its factitious inhabitants…
We know that the PP, if its known for anything, it is for its honesty and willingness to build consensus based
on respect and dialogue. They have repeatedly demonstrated their absolute commitment to truth, welfare, and
the defense of the rights of citizens. We do not doubt, therefore, the intentions of these good people.
The first thing Mariano Rajoy will do, of course, will be to apologize to all Catalans for that time when he
encouraged campaigns to collect “signatures against Catalonia” to block the Statute of Catalonia, which was
then crushed in the Constitutional Court. That was pretty ugly, Mariano…
They will also apologize for wanting to españolizar (Spanish-ize) Catalan children, and for using the language
issue to break the cohesion and consensus that has existed for years in Catalonia. Because the reality is that no
language conflict exists in Catalonia. Castilian speakers like us grow up using our language without any major
problems (of course, you will find idiots no matter where you go). People go to school and learn with total
normality, and the majority of media outlets are in Castilian. Even the director of the RAE has had to admit
that the Castilian language is not in any danger.
We will hear them apologize for having questioned the right of any person, no matter their sexual orientation,
to marry and raise a family. Or for wanting to adopt an abortion reform that leaves women unprotected and
sends us backwards some 40 years, imposing a particular moral or religious doctrine on society (no matter
that Saint Teresa or the Virgin of Rocío make up more than the majority of ministers…). They will probably
condemn the 40 years of Franco’s dictatorship, and the fact that there are still tens of thousands missing in
ditches…due to that memory thing.
Of course they will apologize for leaving thousands of families in the streets while they rescue and protect
bankers. They will also apologize for destroying the pension system, for abandoning dependents and women
victims of gender violence, and for leaving young people and immigrants with no protection whatsoever. They
will also apologize for killing collective negotiation and making further cuts to workers’ rights. They will show
regret, without a doubt, for saying that they were not going to raise taxes, or for that kind “go fuck yourselves”
to the 6 million unemployed.
They will also ask for forgiveness for lying and covering up embezzlers, thieves, and other corrupt criminals, for
accidentally erasing hard disks, and for awarding compensation for simulated dismissals. And surely they will
shower us with apologies for persecuting those who investigated these matters, because no one doubts that the
PP respects the independence and the work of judges. Of course.
They may even apologize for having puffed out their chests and said how much they would help Catalonia
through the FLA, “saving it from bankruptcy” by lending us our own money and then charging us an extra 6%
(it doesn’t seem very honest to be the savior and the bandit at the same time). As I will presume their honesty,
they will acknowledge that Catalonia is suffering an unfair financial treatment, and they will seek to resolve
it by offering us that fiscal pact that they rejected two years ago, and that is too late now. Otherwise, and
assuming the same degree of honesty, if Catalonia is such a burden to Spain, as some people say, they would
have no objection to letting us go… The PP is honest, but not stupid.
Above all, the PP’s main interest and concern will be to listen to the silent majority. And as everyone knows,
there is no better way to listen than to allow people to express themselves. I am certain that in the framework
of this convention of populares Rajoy will announce that, as a strong believer in democracy, he is in favor of
the Catalans going to the polls to pronounce themselves democratically on the future of Catalonia. Who could
possibly be afraid of democracy?
I trust Mariano Rajoy and his gang. Juntos sumamos. And if not, we will always have federalism…maybe we
will have more luck.
First published in SÚMATE
Coque Garcia - Súmate
FURTHER READING

Why a referendum to decide our future?
Starting in the 1950s more than a million people, losers of a war I would
call “uncivil!” due to the misery caused by the Franco victory, were
forced to migrate to where the efforts of their labor could feed their
families, arriving in Catalonia from across Spain, the majority from
Andalusia.
Why the right to decide?
For those of us who have come from outside Catalonia, we know what
it means to make decisions. Our parents or our agüelos (grandparents),
when they decided to pack their suitcases, and, together with their
families, jump on the train that would take them to Catalonia, they had
many doubts about where they were going, because they were heading
into the unknown. But what they did know was what they were leaving
behind: there was no future for them or for their children, and they
made a DECISION, as difficult as it was. They decided to leave what was most important in their lives, what
was closest to them, their homeland where they had been born, they left the rest of their family behind, their
few possessions and their past.
Now they tell us that if we choose the path of independence they we will be heading to a dead end. We might
remind them that we are already used to moving towards the unknown, and that we had already lost our small
homeland when you forced us to emigrate.
Today –which is not such a tragic time but one of equal importance, as what is also at stake is the future of our
children, and most likely that of our grandchildren— we will have the right to DECIDE. To decide if we can
live, together with our families, in a more prosperous and independent Catalonia, free of the fiscal spoliation,
or otherwise we will be forced to see our children and grandchildren having to emigrate once again, this time
abroad, because unemployment in Catalonia has reached unbearable levels.
In a Catalonia free of this fiscal drainage, our families will have a future. We want the right to decide freely,
because if this doesn’t happen then we will have to DECIDE to emigrate yet again, even farther…
High unemployment in Catalonia is due in large part to the fiscal spoliation, and this because even clearer
when we examine the statistics from the Basque Country’s unemployment rate: because they do not have a
fiscal deficit (due to their agreement with the Spanish state) their unemployment rate is half of Catalonia’s.
This would mean a staggering 425,000 jobs, half of the 850,000 unemployed we currently have.
Speaking of Andalusia…
I am recalling the poetry of Miguel Hernández “Andalusians of Jaén, proud harvesters of olives”, kilometers
and kilometers of olives, and the poem goes Whose are these olive groves? Of one or two people, therefore the
profit also belongs to them.
In these hundreds of square kilometers there are villages where people live there who only have jobs once or
twice a year, and they see themselves forced to emigrate. Those on the Left, who should have fixed this with
an agrarian reform after 30 years in office, did not do it due to cowardice about the reaction from the Right.
The most comfortable solution and the one requiring less commitment, has been that of offering subsidies, the
PER, which keeps people stuck in this situation with no hope of improvement. The PER without a project only
creates dependent and depressed people; solidarity that is misunderstood and without and endpoint is only
charity.
I remember decades ago when the PER didn’t exist for the busloads of people, from Extremadura and Andalusia,
who came for 6 month contracts to work along the Costa Brava [Catalonia]. They came to another world, to
other opportunities. Some got married or married Catalans and had their families. Nowadays people prefer to
stay with their comfortable PER, they don’t risk anything, and their jobs have been taken over by foreigners.
Remembering Machado.
Españolito que vienes al mundo te guarde Dios, una de las dos Españas ha de helarte en corazón. (Little
Spaniard, just now coming to the world, may God keep you. One of these two Spains will freeze your heart.) My
problem, as you can see, is that both Spains have frozen my Heart.
The other poetic reflection refers to Rafael Alberti.
A cabalgar, a cabalgar hasta arrojarlos en el mar...(Let’s gallop, let’s gallop, until you bury them in the sea…).
It’s clear that we have not succeeded, as they are the ones riding us. This is why for a long time now I have given
up trying to fix Spain.
Paco Martínez
FURTHER READING

Why is it Catalonia’s fault if it has not wanted to or been able to make a plural Spain work. No one can accuse
us Catalans of not having tried, on the Right and on the Left, we have always wanted to try to find a way to fit,
but after many years we have given up. I don’t think any more could be asked of us.
I am convinced that with our reaction Spain will find it own path of reforms. When Spain comes to terms with
its reality, Catalonia will be here as it always has been, but as an equal this time, and having control over where
the solidarity funds end up, so that they don’t go to the hands of the señores, the olive grove owners…
Democracy is about being about to vote, to decide, and I want to decide to become independent to be able to
create a new country, a country that does not carry these external social burdens.
It is important that those on the “no” side are able to express themselves, so that they can provide their own
alternative, a project for a future within Spain. But a “no” without a project or with old projects that have been
attempted in the past for many years and that have failed, that would be the same as staying exactly where we
are.
We believe that those who propose a project for a future within Spain will first have to convince Spain… This
is a task that those of us on the “yes” side have been trying to do for years now, without any success. I think
that by now, most of us are not willing to wait anymore.
The future is in our hands
What has been giving me the greatest satisfaction at an age of 74 is knowing that our grandchildren will have
the certainty that when it came time to defend their future as Catalans and as citizens, at a historic time like
this, their parents and their agüelos fought hard and were equal to the task.
Building this project for the future will require the help of all of us who want to vote for a new independent
Catalan State, and so therefore SÚMATE (Join Us).
First published in: SÚMATE

Power and Language
Societies around the world regularly petition their
education systems to make changes according to
their needs, priorities and shared goals. They want
an education system that teaches their children
math, literature, languages or whatever they feel
most necessary and appropriate. Then it is up to the
education system to decide how best to meet these
needs. It may draw up a curriculum, implement
teacher training systems, create school networks,
and use all the tools at its disposal to do what that
society has requested. If at some point the society
detects that some of its needs are not being met in a
satisfactory manner, it alerts the education system.
Thus, it is the education system that turns around
and rewrites its plans in order to adjust what
doesn’t work and obtain the requested results. A society might say, for example: students finish school with
little musical training. And it might go on to suggest: maybe it would be good to study more hours of music. But
it is the school system that, logically, would look into exactly how to improve the training, whether with more
hours, by changing the days classes are held, or perhaps by using other teachers… And keeping in mind that
the school is not a bubble in the middle of society and that we cannot apply the same strategy everywhere and
expect to obtain the same results, because social contexts vary.
Here [in Spain] we are different. Here we like to do things differently. We like to be exotic and, I would say,
hardly rational. In Catalonia, and with regard to languages, our society has asked our schools to see to it that
all students emerge with the ability to speak, understand, read and write in Catalan and Castilian. As a result,
we have devised a method that effectively achieves this result. I have found no one who questions this result,
and the exams also clearly show it. Therefore, despite the good results, and that the Catalan school system has
responded effectively and accurately to what was demanded of it, now it seems that through new laws and
the courts, our school system is being forced to change the very methods it had used to achieve such excellent
results. And, therefore, these results are in danger of disappearing: if we make significant changes to something
that works, there is always the danger that it could stop working. Throughout the world, it is the society that
decides what is needed and it is up to the educational community and the specialists to devise the best way to
achieve it. Here [in Spain], the courts are telling us how to do things, they even set the number of hours for
each, and it seems that they could care less about the result.
There is one other thing that is very odd, as well as a load of nonsense: they have even gone on to compare the
schools during Franco’s regime to today’s Catalan schools (and those that are calling for the same model) with
regard to languages. Yet the objectives and the results are exact opposites. Night and day. The result and the
goal of the current school model in Catalonia is for all students to emerge knowing both Catalan and Castilian.
The result and the goal of the school system during Franco’s dictatorship was exactly the opposite: today
there are several generations of Catalan speakers who don’t know how to read or write in their own language,
because the school didn’t teach them how to. And several generations of Castilian speakers were not able to
learn Catalan in school and, as a result, have never learned it or have had to study it on their own. The result
of the current school model in Catalonia is entire generations of bilingual students, who (no matter what the
language they speak at home) have emerged with a strong foundation in both languages. The result of Franco’s
school model was generations fated, for one part of the population, to be monolingual Castilian speakers, and
for the other, to not have a strong grasp of their own mother tongue.
How is it that here in Spain it is the courts that write school curriculums and society is more focused on how
language learning is organized and not what is taught? This is because the debate is not really about language
and education. It is about power. It’s about who is in charge. It’s about what kind of model should be used,
the French one or the Swiss one. Or yet another hypothesis: there are people who believe that a language is
a carrier of ideology. That if we speak too much Catalan to our children, then they will end up being Catalan
“nationalists” and if we don’t speak enough Castilian to them then they will not be “Spanish” enough. It means
believing that the school is an ideological mold and that children are molding clay. This is a concept that has
been deeply rooted in all authoritarian thinking throughout history.
First published in: Diari ARA
Vienç Villatoro
OPINION

An absurd ruling
In a situation like today’s, which is not one of the best moments for our
education system (budget cuts, PISA results…), it is surprising to find
some people still bent on dismantling one of its most successful parts:
Catalan language immersion in the schools.
Only a few decades ago most of the citizens of Catalonia understood
Catalan, but it was harder to find people who spoke it, and even fewer were
able to write in Catalan: a significant number of native Catalan speakers
had serious difficulties writing in their own language. Now, however,
most of the people who went through their childhood and adolescence
in Catalonia in these last few decades can speak and write with ease in
both Catalan and Castilian. To see so many young people from immigrant
families, from cultural contexts that are markedly different from ours and
from each other, able to use both the Catalan and the Castilian language
so naturally is an undoubted success.
It is a success that, as we said above, is primarily due to our schools. People talk a lot about the media in Catalan,
and obviously that factor also contributed to the normalization, but it is the school system that truly deserves
the credit for the learning of and the active use of Catalan today. By watching or listening to the media we can
learn to understand a language, but it is much harder to speak or write it. It is in the schools where people have
had to use Catalan on a daily basis, and this is why they learned to use it without any major problems.
It is revealing that when we look at where this immersion system has generated real conflicts, it is not so
much in the schools, but instead in other areas (the courts, the political parties, media forums, etc.). And this
is largely because the immersion system, in practice, has been applied using rigorous pedagogical criteria,
common sense and respect for the languages and cultures of origin of the students.
It is therefore a shame that now that things were working so well, some are seeking to disrupt this system
by creating new laws that are unmistakably reactionary (LOMCE) and court rulings that are pedagogically
absurd. Such as the most recent ruling by the High Court of Justice of Catalonia, which states that the Catalan
Government and the directorates of the education centers have to guarantee that students with families who
request it –and, as a result, all of their classmates— receive 25% of their classes in Castilian: why 25% and not
47% or 19%?; will they hire inspectors to time the use of each language in class?; does the percentage affect the
language the teachers use, or also the language the boys and girls use during the class?; will the students who
don’t use the proper language at the right time have to be punished?; and if the majority of families of a class
are happy with the way things have been working, why will they have to adapt at the request of a minority?
Clearly in such matters, the pedagogical viewpoint always mixes with the ideological one. It is inevitable to find
ideological motives behind every political-educational decision, and it is perfectly legitimate. But we should
be wary of technocratic educational approaches that are intended to appear neutral, because they are the
same ones that falsely conceal the true ideology underneath. Less desirable, but also predictable, is that legal
decisions on these issues will be imbued with certain political leanings. What is much less understandable is
that there are those who, for pure ideology, are willing to jeopardize their children’s acquisition of an asset as
valuable as a language, whether it be Catalan or Castilian.
Today we must resolutely defend linguistic immersion as it has been applied up until now: in practice it has
worked brilliantly and has produced positive results that before had seemed almost unthinkable. Linguistic
immersion is still necessary, because the normalization process is not finished yet: in some important areas
of society Catalan is still in a precarious situation. If Catalonia were to become independent, and if there were
real attempts to marginalize that Spanish language, I would add my voice to those who would loudly object
it. Catalonia, independent or not, should never give up the enormous cultural and communication capital of
having all of its citizens to be able to speak the Spanish language fluently. [...]
You can read the full article, here:
http://www.elperiodico.com/es/noticias/opinion/una-sentencia-absurda-3071894
First published in El Periódico
Jaume Trilla
OPINION

What about Valencia and the Balearic Islands?
One of the great challenges to Catalanism and
Catalan culture in the coming years will be to keep
our cultural unity intact –or at least prevent it from
further disintegration-- regardless of what happens
on a political level in each of the territories that
share our language and culture. In other words, we
should be aware that the Catalan language unites us,
and this should encourage any cultural productions
made in Catalan to freely circulate throughout these
territories. Writers from the Principat (Catalonia)
should publish their work in Mallorcan publishing
houses and Valencian writers in Valencian publishing houses, we should be able to find all their works in all
of our bookshops –and in the libraries—and together we should take steps to explain what our culture is like
and make it visible on an international level, as well as encourage translations. When it comes to politics, each
territory has to have its own dynamics regarding political life, institutional goals and the structure of political
forces that it chooses. But culture is a shared space. What will happen with this space?
There is a concern that the success of the pro-sovereignty process in Catalonia would mean, in practice, a
severing of cultural ties with the rest of the Catalan-speaking territories. A few days ago the Emili Darder
Foundation invited Damià Pons, Joan Francesc Mira and myself to Mallorca to speak about this issue. Because
it’s something that people are worried about. But what should be even more worrisome is what would happen
if the pro-sovereignty process were to stall and calls for greater standardization and re-centralization were to
spread throughout Spain. Or simply if the governments of the Balearic Islands, Valencia and Aragon decide
maintain the policies that are hostile to our shared language and culture –with the name each territory wants
to give this language, but that we all know is the same and that philology calls “Catalan”—as these governments
closely mimic the slogans and attitudes coming from Madrid, in addition to their own agenda. They ask us: if
Catalonia becomes independent, what will happen to Catalan culture in Valencia and the Balearic Islands? But
we might also ask: if Catalonia’s pro-sovereignty process is aborted suddenly, what will happen to the cultural
ties with the other territories? And what will happen to their cultures?
Some believe that Catalonia’s independence will signify a rupture in the cultural space, that an independent
Catalonia would become isolated from the rest of the Catalan-speaking territories. There is no real reason to
think so. We can find many cultural spaces shared by territories with very different state realities. German,
Spanish, and above all, Dutch, show us that we can maintain shared cultural spaces between states and be in
separate states. Even in the case of Catalan, there has been a more fluid cultural relationship between Catalonia
and Andorra –despite being different States—than between Catalonia and Valencia, which are in the same
state. Thus, if Catalonia were to become a state, then we shouldn’t have to sever ties with anyone. What might
“break” something would be the Spanish reaction to Catalonia becoming a state. This is why it would be the
fault of their reaction, and not of the pro-sovereignty movement itself. (It would be like the judge who blamed
rapes on the mini-skirts women were wearing: the culprit is the one who reacts irrationally, not the one who
appears to be causing a problem and then ends up suffering).
If the pro-sovereignty process ends well, Catalan culture will have more institutional strength behind it
(another state in its favor, we must imagine), but there is the risk of an offended and vindictive reaction of the
Spanish state, which would see Spain attempting to break all of Catalonia’s bridges with the rest of the cultural
community. This has already started to happen. If the pro-sovereignty process doesn’t end well, it will be more
important than ever to closely collaborate with all the Catalan-speaking territories to preserve our common
language and culture. In either of the two scenarios, in these next few years Catalan culture will need to have
a strong network in civil society that maintains a strong cultural relationship with all the territories, without
paternalism, but based instead on equality, as if it were a common and shared house. And we will also need
an institutional network that can rise above political conjecture and difference. Regardless, if the Catalan pro-
sovereignty process is a success, it should not mean severing ties with a shared culture in Valencia, the Balearic
Islands, and in Aragon. And if the process doesn’t go as planned, then our cultural unity will be even more vital.
In one case (Valencia), breaking apart will weaken our shared language and culture. In the other (the Balearic
Islands), breaking apart will cause it to cease to exist.
First published in diari ARA
Vicenç Villatoro - Diari ARA
OPINION

Independence: does the EU really have nothing useful to say?
However, it looks as if in the European Commission no one
dares to cross the bridge. And when some of them do, they
change their minds and cross back again to the beginning,
to the place of uncertainty, half truths and completely and
utterly useless legal statements that only apply to that
sterile and imaginary world in which nothing is really hap-
pening. Until, surprise, surprise, it actually does.
One of the most relevant events happening in the European
Unionin2014isthereferendumonScottishindependence.
The agreement between the Scottish government and the
UK government to hold the referendum, the so-called
‘Edinburgh Agreement’, is unprecedented in Europe and
it should doubtlessly be considered as a model of how to
resolve difficult constitutional, legal and political issues
in a democratic and peaceful manner.
‘In the United Kingdom, in Scot- land, we knew the mandate (to organ- ize a referendum) existed and we, as
democrats, wanted to honour that’, Michael Moore, former Secretary of State for Scotland and the man who
negotiated the UK government stance on the referendum, told me in an interview recently. ‘My argument
regularly last year, before the Edinburgh Agree- ment, was that the electorate would get very annoyed with the
politicians from both sides if we let the process get in the way of the decision’, he explained.
On October 15th 2012 the UK’s Prime Minister, David Cameron, and the Scottish First Minister, Alex Sal-
mond, signed an agreement to hold the referendum. The deal set out the basic terms of the Scottish independ-
ence referendum: a yes/no question, the right of 16 and 17 years-olds to take part in the ballot and the fact that
the decision would be taken in the autumn of 2014. At the time, David Cameron said that he always wanted to
‘show respect to the people of Scotland’ because ‘they voted for a party that wanted to have a referendum’.
The conservative Prime Minister made sure that the deal allowed Scottish people to have a ‘deci- sive, legal and
fair’ referendum.
‘Now we’ve got the process sorted, and in a year’s time we’ll have taken the decision’, Michael Moore said in
our interview. This allows politicians from both sides to focus on the key question: Should Scotland become an
independent country? A great deal is at stake: the currency, defence and energy policies, oil and gas, pensions
and the welfare state being but some of them. Doubts as to how Scotland would continue to be part of the
European Union following independence is one of the main issues on the table.
Scottish First Minister Alex Sal- mond’s Scottish National Party (SNP) claims that Scotland will be a member
of the EU. They accept this might entail some kind of negotiation with Brussels, London and the rest of the
member states, but although there is no precedent they expect the process to be resolved during the talks on
independence from the UK. In other words, between he time of a ‘yes’ vote, in September 2014, and the official
declaration of independence, in 2016. ‘The idea that oil-rich, fishing-rich, renewable energy-rich Scotland
will not be wanted as part of the European Union is simply unthinkable’, Salmond has stated on numerous
occasions.
The former secretary of State for Scotland, Michael Moore, agrees that membership itself should not be a big
issue. ‘I have no reason to believe that any country around Europe would have an in-principle objection to any
new member state coming forward’, he said, referring not only to Scotland, but also to Catalonia. For him, the
main problem is the kind of ‘deal’ that an independent Scotland could get from the EU and how long it would
take to negotiate. Would the new state have to join the euro? Would it retain the British rebate? What about
fishing and farming arrangements?
‘Having studied and followed Euro- pean politics for a long time, I am wary of just how long it may take, even
if we assume complete support for Scotland’s application’, he said. For Moore, the SNP is promising to keep
the rebate and get ‘a better fishing arrangement, a better farming arrangement, and a better structural funds
deal’. ‘This is quite a big negotiation achievement to get for membership negotiations’, he warned, adding that
‘in the meantime’ Scotland would ‘still be part of the UK, waiting for all this to be resolved’ or will have left the
union and would not yet have ‘rejoined the EU’. ‘All this is very desta- bilizing to very important economical
interests in Scotland’, he cautioned.
Graham Avery, Senior Member of St. Antony’s College, Oxford Universi- ty, argued in a report for the UK Parlia-
ment that the Scots ‘could not be asked to leave the EU and apply for readmis- sion’ for ‘practical and political
reasons’. He said that negotiations ‘on the terms of membership would take place in the period between the
referendum and the planned date of independence’, thus agreeing with the Scottish government’s version of
events. Avery added that the EU, ‘would adopt a simplified procedure for the negotiations, not the traditional
procedure followed for the accession of non-member countries’.
In a similar vein, former European Court judge, Professor Sir David Ed- ward, argues in a paper that, ‘the EU
institutions and all the member states (including the UK as it exists) would be obliged to enter into negotiations,
before separation took effect, to deter- mine the future relationship within the EU of the separate parts of the
former UK and the other member states’. Sir Edward expects the outcome of the negotiations to be, ‘an agreed
Laura Pous - Catalan International View
IN DEPTH

amendment of the existing treaties, not a new accession treaty’, unless discussions ‘failed utterly’.
However, in Brussels they don’t seem to be at all impressed by these arguments. The possibility of Scottish
independence is not an issue in the Eu- ropean capital. Or it appears not to be. With less than a year to go
before the referendum, Scottish citizens have yet to receive an unambiguous, precise answer from the EU on
what will happen if they vote for independence in 2014.
Sometimes the European Commis- sion says, in the words of its President José Manuel Durao Barroso or of
its Vice-President, the Spaniard Joaquín Almunia, that a new independent state would be treated as a new
applicant and it will have to reapply for membership. While others, such as Commis- sioner Johannes Hahn,
state that the whole debate can be done ‘in a much more relaxed manner’. Meanwhile, EU officials also say that
they are unable to comment on specific situations such as the Scottish or the Catalan ones and the EU, ‘will
only be able to express its opinion on the legal consequences under EU law of a specific situation upon request
from a member state detailing a precise scenario’.
I often wonder if Eurocrats really expect the Scots to vote on independence next year in the absence of a clear
answer on what will happen regarding their EU membership. Particularly since the European Commission
usually argues that it doesn’t want to interfere in the internal affairs of its members states and doesn’t want
to discuss ‘hypotheti- cal scenarios’. The European Commis- sion rejected the Scottish government’s calls for
talks on the issue in December last year, arguing that ‘in the absence of a precise scenario, President Barroso
would not be in a position to usefully discuss this’. ‘The European Commis- sion has consistently refrained
from expressing a position on questions of internal organisation related to the constitutional arrangements
in the member states’, said the EC response, signed by Vice-President Maros Sefcovic.
Is avoiding an answer a means to interfere in the debate? By waiting until a member state puts the question
are they offering some ‘advantage’ to that member state? If the UK doesn’t want to ask Brussels about the EU
question, Brussels won’t answer. And if Spain does the same (as I am sure it will) the EU won’t comment on the
specifics of the Catalan case either. This puts stateless governments in a wholly disadvanta- geous situation, as
they depend entirely on the good faith of the big state that is, of course, anything but impartial in the debate.
Some might expect the British government to show some willingness to cooperate at some point. I’d very
much doubt that Madrid would show the same degree of understanding should Catalonia go ahead with a
referendum.
We should of course remind our- selves that the EU is a union of member states. But offering some clarity as
to the process to be followed in the case of independence (not necessarily on the outcome of such a process)
would benefit everyone. First and foremost, it would benefit democracy and the repu- tation of the EU as a
guardian of it; and secondly, it would help Scotland and other nations seeking independence to have a clear
and reasonable discussion of the arguments for or against it. Pursuing uncertainty on the process is definitely
more advantageous for the ‘no’ campaign.
The European Commission should outline a clear path for the negotiation of the accession of a newly created
state from within the EU without requiring permission from a member state. It should confirm whether the
scenarios envisaged by experts such as Graham Avery or Sir David Edwards are poten- tial solutions to a ‘yes’
vote. It is unrea- sonable, as Professor Avery argues, to ask the Scots to leave the EU and wait for the results
of protracted negotiations (perhaps lasting several years) simply as a result of having voted for independence.
The same should apply to the Cat- alans, who feel extremely pro-European while simultaneously showing a
grow- ing desire to leave Spain.
Scottish citizens have rights as Eu- ropean citizens and these cannot be done away with so easily. Having agreed
on the rescue packages for Greece and the Spanish banking system following years of economic mismanagement
in Athens and Madrid (to mention but two examples) it would be unthinkable to expel millions of citizens from
the EU simply because they decided (democratically) to change their passports and create a new country. A
new country that would already comply with all European laws, as it has done since 1973, when the UK joined
the club.
Obviously a newly independent Scotland would have to enter into negotiations: the number of seats in the
European Parliament, its share of votes on the Council, its contribution to the EU budget, its share of EU funds,
fishing quotas and so on. But so too would the remaining UK state. No-one, not even Barroso, can seriously
suggest that the Scots or Catalans will have to ‘join the queue’, as the Spanish Foreign Minister once said, to
get back into the EU after independence. I seriously doubt even London would be comfortable accepting
an expulsion, especially considering that the Edinburgh Agree- ment states that the two governments are
‘committed to working together constructively in the light of the outcome, whatever it may be, in the best
interests of the people of Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom’.
I understand independence is seen as a new political nightmare in a European Union in crisis. And I under-
stand that Europe thinks it is playing the ‘neutrality’ card by simply repeating a strict legal scenario that is
nothing less than utterly stupid and unrealistic. The ‘no’ campaign can argue that independence is going to
force Scotland to start extremely difficult, protracted and complicated negotiations, with the po- tential risk
of being expelled from the EU altogether. But nothing is certain. The ‘yes’ campaign has to challenge this
argument by appealing to common sense, by claiming that the process will be a smooth one. But nothing is
certain. And voters don’t know who to trust. Since nothing is certain.
What is certain is the fact that on the 18th of September 2014 the Scot- tish people will vote on whether or not
they want to have an independent country. And they should have a specific answer to the European question
before doing so. They should know whether they will have to negotiate membership before the declaration of
independence, if a transitional period will be needed, during which all Euro- pean rights and obligations will be
pro- tected but Scotland would not yet be fully a member, if a new treaty will be needed, or if unanimity of all
member states is a precondition for accession. The precedent of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement
negotiations with Kosovo demonstrates that special political arrangements can be decided to accommodate
everyone’s interests, even those of countries that, like Spain, do not recognize the independence of Pristina.
Politics should come into play in the Scottish case as well, sooner rather than later.

Recent demographic changes: the new immigration
In the 1990’s, and especially from the year 2000 onwards,
a large migratory wave from various origins has reached
Catalonia. The society and its institutions offer resources
which facilitate the learning of Catalan, in accordance with
the characteristics of each community and each individual’s
circumstances.
The different migratory waves which occurred between
the 50’s and 70’s supposed a deep change in the Catalan
demographical configuration. In the middle of Franco’s
regime there was no welcoming infrastructure, either cultural
or linguistic, to receive the newly arrived citizens who had
come from the Spanish State, mainly Andalusia, Extremadura
and Murcia, and whose native tongue was Spanish. They
distributed themselves in an unequal way throughout the region, creating important nuclei around the city
of Barcelona which nowadays still has a different linguistic configuration to the rest of Catalonia. The non-
existence of a Catalan school system and the regime’s explicit prohibition of the use of Catalan meant that the
language passed unnoticed by a large number of immigrants who had low or null contact with it. Although
the later linguistic policies have aimed to readdress this situation, experience proves that efficient welcoming
infrastructures are essential to guarantee the newly arrived people’s access to the region’s culture and language.
Another far reaching migratory wave, which commenced in the 90’s and became evident from 2000 onwards,
has affected Catalonia. This time the origin of the newly arrived peoples is more varied. If in Catalonia in the
year 2000 there were 6.261.999 inhabitants and 2,90% came from outside the Spanish State, in 2008 the
population had risen to 7.364.078 inhabitants, of which 14,99% were from outside the Spanish State. Of of this
15%, the principle countries of origin of the new arrivals were Morocco (19%), Romania (8%), Ecuador (7%)
and Bolivia (5%). Nevertheless, up to 75 countries have immigrated communities of more than 500 people in
Catalonia.
In 2007, 64% of the population of Catalonia was born in this region, 20% in the rest of Spain and 16% outside
the Spanish State. Therefore, not a negligible amount, that is to say, 36% was born outside Catalonia and have
lived through a process of integration into the welcoming society which, presumably, is different to the one from
which they originated, be it from a linguistic or cultural point of view. This variety of origins also represents
a variety of languages. With regards to their initial language – the first language that the infant speaks, in a
home environment –, we can see this variety because 50% of the people who reside in Catalonia have Spanish
as their initial language, 30% have Catalan as their initial language, 10% come from bilingual Catalan-Spanish
families and 10% learnt to speak in a language that was not Catalan or Spanish. This 10% of the population is
the percentage which contains the greatest degree of linguistic variety because it encompasses speakers of 65
different languages. The most frequent languages are Arabic (16%), Rumanian (14 %), Tamazight (12 %) and
French and Portuguese (6 %).
In accordance with the cultural and linguistic variety, the welcoming services for the newly arrived people
have also become multilingual. The welcoming processes can be generally distinguished in accordance with
their addressee. On the one hand, there are welcoming mechanisms aimed at infants and youths of school
age. Given that the schooling in Catalonia is free and obligatory until the age of 16, all of the population under
this age who arrives in Catalonia is incorporated into the Catalan schooling system. This is both an advantage
and a challenge for the school, since on the one hand it facilitates the welcoming processes by having the
newly arrived citizens located, but on the other it requires the school to have an infrastructure and solid and
flexible welcoming tools which allow the management of this variety to be confronted with guarantees, which
is an added task to that of offering knowledge to the students. Furthermore, there are welcoming systems for
the adult population. Given the dispersion of this type of population, the welcoming mechanisms have to be
developed in different ambits: work place, health, housing, social services, etc. Communication, which is an
essential tool for integration, can see itself made difficult by the barriers created by linguistic understanding,
in accordance with the origin of the newly arrived person. Therefore, the management of linguistic variety is,
at the same time, a welcoming means of the immigrated population.
In Catalonia we have opted for a welcoming model in the language of the region, that is, in Catalan. So, we
have opted to give the Catalan language the role of common language in the enormous linguistic variety we
find in the region. The Catalan society and institutions therefore have to offer resources for the learning of this
language to people of quite varied linguistic origin and they have to do so in accordance with the characteristics
of each community and the circumstances of each individual who arrives in this region. The routes to learning
the language depend on the age of the person who arrives, which conditions their passage through the schooling
system. With regards to infants and youths of school age, the school is the principal route for learning the
language. Catalan is the language used in the school and, even though this supposes a high degree of contact
with the new language which facilitates the learning process, it also requires welcoming resources. The aim
is to facilitate that the newly arrived infant acquire the knowledge and linguistic skills which allows him to
learn the Catalan language, to integrate into the class, school, and municipality and, in definitive, into the
welcoming society. In the Catalan educational centres, this process is undertaken by the welcoming classes.
The welcoming class is a space in the educational centre which has been prepared to receive students from a
varied linguistic and cultural origin, at any time during the school course. This class facilitates an intensive and
personalised learning of the Catalan language, as well as the school curricular basics adapted to each student,
Culturcat - Generalitat de Catalunya
OUR CULTURE OUR HISTORY

which allow for their later integration into the school course with the rest of their classmates. As the students
acquires these skills, the time they spend in the welcoming class diminishes in the same way that their presence
in class increases, until the student leaves the welcoming class to join the common classroom together with the
rest of his classmates. The welcoming class requires professionals with pedagogical skill, who can manage the
cultural and linguistic variety and perform intercultural mediation which allows them to successfully face this
new challenge.
With regards to the linguistic integration of adults, the school has little or no role and it is other organisms
that take charge of offering Catalan classes to adults. For the last 20 years it has been the ‘Consorci per a la
Normalització Lingüística’ [Consortium for Linguistic Normalization] (CPNL) which has undertaken this task.
The CPNL is a public entity integrated by the Generalitat de Catalunya and town halls and county councils
of the Principality. This task is structured from the programme of linguistic welcoming, which promotes the
collaboration with the local and county administrations, offers courses of initial and basic level to the newly
arrived and elaborates and distributes materials which foment the linguistic integration of the immigrated
people. Furthermore, it also foments the implication of the citizen entities and the associations of immigrants
to undertake activities of linguistic normalization. In numbers, the CPNL organised more than 1.800 courses
of Catalan for adults during the course 2005-2006, which were attended by more than 42.000 students,
mainly from Southern America, North Africa and other countries of the European Union. We must point out,
moreover, the innovative initiative called ‘Voluntariat per la Llengua’ [Volunteering for the Language] which,
from 2003 onwards, induced the creation of linguistic pairings in order to offer the newly arrived spaces where
they could speak in their native tongue.
One of the problems which the newly arrived face, who have learnt or are learning Catalan, is the tendency
of the Catalan speakers to not maintain their own language when speaking to someone not known to them
or someone they identify as being foreign. Various campaigns of the Secretary of Linguistic Policy have also
been addressed at changing this attitude, so that the Catalan language become a welcoming and integrating
language, that is, a common space of dialogue which allows for the communicative exchange between this
multicoloured wide range of origins and cultures which actually fills the streets of our villages and cities.
With regards to the other Catalan speaking regions, the situation is very varied and, in general, less favourable
to the integration of the newly arrived from the point of view of language. The Valencian region registers 15,4%
of immigrated population which can reach substantially higher peaks in the villages where this population
gathers together, and the Balearic Islands reach 18,8%. In Aragon, although we do not possess data relative
to just the ‘Franja’ area, the percentage reaches 10,3%. There is no data for Alguer and Northern Catalonia.
The legal and sometimes demographical weakness of the Catalan languages in these regions, and the lack of
integration policies, means that most newly arrived learn Spanish but not Catalan.
First published in Culturcat
Photo by Culturcat
ISSN: 2014-9093 | Legal deposit: B. 2198-2013

A Success Story: Spanish immigration to Catalonia (In Transit #25)

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