The last municipal survey of Barcelona, from 2022, collect the data of residents who have Catalan as their most commonly used language lower of the historical series: 38.8%. Other recent surveys of linguistic use broaden the focus and place the lowest levels of use and knowledge of Catalan at cities like L’Hospitalet de Llobregat and Santa Coloma de Gramenet (among those with more than 50,000 inhabitants) and, in general, in Barcelonès Nord and Baix Llobregat. In crude, these figures can feed the debate on what has come to be described, in some campaigns, as «danger of extinction» of the Catalan language. But going down to detail forces qualify the most apocalyptic visions who give up grasping the reality of the country in all its complexity. In absolute numbers, the number of Catalan speakers is maintained or increased (although their percentage falls due to the new demographic contributions), they continue to transmit the language to the new generations and more people are incorporated into this linguistic community. And the figures for knowledge and use of the language are notably higher than those of native Catalan speakers. Which means that the bilingualism of first, second and third generations does not subtract, but adds.
Nothing to do with the image of an endangered language. But yes with worrisome symptoms. The new migratory contributions are coming into contact with Catalan to a much lesser degree and much more slowly than the previous ones. And in an intensely multilingual younger generation, Spanish is overtaking Catalan as a language of exchange, reinforced by its predominance in the new forms of communication adolescents use as a reference.
To incorporate
Catalan has been incorporating new speakers in successive generations with different instruments. Utility as a form of integration and labor progress. Linguistic militancy of its speakers. The empathy towards these by the newcomers (especially those who understood the normalization of Catalan as one more of the liberties recovered after the Franco regime). A reference, this one, already distant or alien to the new communities of speakers who have come from other places and at very different times and who in recent years have not found a consensus model around a shared Catalan identity, but rather the opposite. .
The linguistic map of the 21st century is no longer the same as that of 1981. Nor are the policies. Language requirements in the public service they can serve to maintain the status of the Catalan language as a useful and profitable acquisition. The school must rethink its strategies so as not to faint in the inalienable purpose for the entire school population to acquire the necessary level of knowledge of Catalan and Spanish. Militancy in the maintenance of one’s own language it can be fed back. But gaining ground involves playing on the ground of rights and respect. To achieve, for example, that the fact that an official must know the Catalan language is seen as a guarantee to enforce the rights of everyone to use their own language, not as an arbitrary imposition. A show of respect. And rights, and respect, cannot be anything other than reciprocal. Something you can never forget if you do not want to alienate wills rather than incorporate them.