Barcelona commissioner supports policies that 'do not create hostility' towards expats

The Barcelona Commissioner for the Social Use of the Catalan Language, Marta Salicrú, favors implementing policies that "do not create hostility" towards expats as a way of improving the social use of the language.

Salicrú said that the current "linguistic policies do not work" and that it is important to find new ways to "encourage" new residents, such as expats or digital nomads, to "love our language as much as we love it," during an interview with 3Cat's Més 324 show.

One measure Salicrú proposed is organizing several activities with the Consortium for Linguistic Normalization to "engage [expats] in fostering respect for our language."

The Catalan language expert and journalist was appointed commissioner last July by Barcelona mayor Jaume Collboni, coinciding with the second anniversary of his four-year term.

"We must have initiatives that encourage. We must work on policies that do not create hostility. We must be rigid but also creative," she said when asked about the lack of use of Catalan or Spanish among expats.

She proposed that Catalan language speakers do not switch to other languages if the person they are talking to has a different accent or a different background. "You can be surprised," she said, as a lot of people "make an effort to learn the language and need to practice."

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