Albisteak
Immigrant carers
We might often picture the situation of the Basque language as an old boat: whilst the crew try and fix the hole letting water into the ship, a new hole appears between the old boards.
A new phenomenon has been occurring over the last few years in the most Basque speaking areas of our society that, in my opinion, we have not analysed sufficiently until now. This is surely due to the fact that the issue presents many different facets that I will attempt to summarise as best I can.
For the last few years, when looking for carers for our older generations, families have tended to employ immigrants, most South Americans, and almost always Spanish speakers. This widespread phenomenon has brought great changes to how languages are used, not only to the so-called linguistic landscape but also to the most intimate areas that have been operating in Basque for a long time.
Old people who have lived almost exclusively in Basque, even people that we consider to be almost monolingual Basque speakers, have then had to change this way of living for their last few years on Earth and spend most of their day speaking Spanish. This phenomenon has also invaded family relationships: Spanish has penetrated many families whose intimate relationships used to be exclusively in the Basque language. Within a short time, a varying proportion of relationships between grandparents, children and grandchildren will also end up developing in Spanish.
There have also been consequences for the use of the language in street life. In this way, places with a clearly Basque-speaking atmosphere have seen Spanish invade areas that, until very recently, were exclusively Basque: retirement clubs, the bars they meet in, and daily life in general in the streets, districts and villages.
Obviously this is not a clear-cut issue and it has to be treated with the utmost care and respect because this phenomenon encompasses immigrants' needs to work and live as they already suffer great difficulties, the demographic characteristics of Basque society, the fact that the economic boom of the last few years has led people born here to spurn jobs such as carers and other factors that I will not go into. We should also not ignore how much our old people appreciate the affectionate care that many of these immigrants provide.
All in all, we have a problem here. A new and powerful phenomenon is occurring in the Basque-speaking community; a change that really strikes a nerve, in one of the most emotional, private and intimate areas. Worker on linguistic standardisation should look into this.
Malores Etxeberria
Basque language technician in the Town Hall of Hernani
