Inmigración, lenguas oficiales y educación en el País Vasco

Resumen

It is an important process for the personal growth and socio-cultural integration of immigrants to learn the official languages of their host communities. Host communities also consider the teaching and learning of official languages important because of their value as a tool for integration and social cohesion and also as a sign of cultural identity. The two official languages of the Basque Country are linguistically distant and on the other hand, the speech communities of each of these languages are very different both numerically and regarding socio-geographical factors. This situation poses difficult decisions for immigrant people learning the official languages. In these situations learning two languages promotes inclusion processes for various reasons: it strengthens the comprehensive knowledge of Basque culture, it contributes to the developing of additive identities and provides people with important tools for employability and citizenship. Within the Basque Educational System significant efforts are being made to design and develop contexts that facilitate the learning of both official languages to students who have joined the educational system at a later stage. In the second part of the article some of the programs and measures that have been implemented to respond to the diversity of these students are reviewed. These processes are also discussed.