Recent demographic changes: the new immigration

  • 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.

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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.

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