Publications

Publication details [#62053]

Edwards, Catrin Wyn. 2016. Language-in-education policies, immigration and social cohesion in Catalonia: the case of Vic. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 19 (5) : 530–545.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Place, Publisher
Routledge

Annotation

This inquiry explores the language-in-education policies executed to integrate international immigrants into Vic's Catalan language community. It centers on the Catalan Government's ‘Languages and Social Cohesion Plan’ (LIC) plan, Vic city council's local education plans, assumed as part of LIC plan, and the EBE centre, a Catalan Government initiative installed in Vic as educational reception space for lately arrived immigrant families. Using empirical data collected from semi-structured interviews and supported with policy document assay, this inquiry argues that Vic immigrant families and community members have played a key role in strengthening the city's language-in-education policies; that immigrant parents can add to their children's linguistic integration, even when not proficient in the minority language; and that Catalonia's broader social cohesion discourse has eased this bigger participation amid the immigrant family and community members. These three claims submit a counterargument to the increscent conviction in the literature on minority language revival that the family and the community no longer play a notable role in minority language preservation.