Language Policies, Ideologies, and Attitudes, Part 2: International Immigration, Globalization and the Future of Catalan

This, the second of two articles on Catalonian language policies and their sociolinguistic effects, reviews research related to the current policy called the Pla per la Llengua i la Cohesió Social (Plan for Language and Social Cohesion) inaugurated in 2004. The Plan addresses a situation in which Catalan is stable demolinguistically but in which globalization and international immigration are seen as long‐term threats to the language's vitality. In addition, language planners were and remain concerned with preserving social cohesion in a much more linguistically and culturally diverse society. We show that this policy builds on and maintains the infrastructure of the prior Normalization policy discussed in Part 1. Nevertheless, it presents a late modern ethos in favor of societal multilingualism that transcends the position in favor of bilingualism aimed for by Normalization. We argue that research on Catalonian society's response to this policy shows some difficulties with implementation and a continuing preoccupation with traditional essentialist ethnolinguistic concerns by some Catalonians. However, we also find that this late modern ethos of multilingualism is assumed by large segments of Catalan society as a representing forward‐looking desirable cosmopolitan identity. The article ends with an overview of how recent political developments in relation to Catalonia's political status are linked to language policy and use.