Official language knowledge among foreign-born immigrants in Catalonia, Spain, and implications for their social integration

In recent years, Catalonia has experienced a significant influx of international immigrants, added to the already important internal migration flows of prior decades. Now, however, this immigration takes place in a political and social context in which Catalan is the language of official use in all branches of government administration as well as in the education system. Knowledge of the Catalan language has been considered an essential part of the process of integration for the immigrant population residing in Catalonia. Using the data provided by the recent 2007 National Survey of Immigrants, this article analyzes the immigrant population's knowledge of Catalan in relation to their knowledge of Castilian (Spanish). The data indicates that in spite of the official status of the Catalan language in Catalonia, knowledge of Catalan among immigrants to the region is relatively low and much lower than that of Castilian, a situation that invites reflection on the social implications of this reality.