| This thesis explores the concept of linguistic citizenship as both a theory of human interaction and as an empirical institutional project undertaken by the Catalan government that encompasses integrative processes which seek to generate social cohesion between autochthonous Catalans and newly arrived immigrants. In doing so, I define linguistic ideology critically as a heuristic research tool applied to processes of linguistic citizenship. Because the increasing number of non-Spanish nationals is a perceived threat to Catalan language revitalization, linguistic citizenship emphasizes promoting, knowing, and using Catalan as a shared civic responsibility for all citizens regardless of origin or legal status as a way to protect Catalan language maintenance. I conclude that these actions constitute an excessive objectification of Catalan, which paradoxically inhibits its revitalization.;The core of the dissertation focuses on interview, visual, textual, and linguistic evidence and offers an analysis of Catalan language policy, campaigns, programs, and activities that target immigrants. The primary exemplar reviewed is Barcelona's aules d'acollida, welcoming classrooms instituted to teach newly arrived immigrant students basic aspects of Catalan language and society. Transcript excerpts reveal how Castilian becomes a metalinguistic code amongst students—even between those that do not speak it natively—in pedagogical activities and contexts that are otherwise designed to be monolingual in Catalan. Various factors intervene, such as the institutional ghettoization of Barcelona's public schools, the lack of support for program staff and faculty, as well and the discriminatory nature of pedagogical materials, all of which counteract the overall project of Catalan linguistic citizenship and revitalization. |
