Spanish in Italy disputes French for its primacy as a foreign language, according to a study by Cervantes

Spanish in Italy maintains a “strength in cultural values” compared to English and disputes French’s “primacy” as the most spoken foreign language, according to the data collected in the fifth volume on demolinguistics in the transalpine country of the collection ‘Spanish in Europa’, a research proposal from the Center for Ibero-American Studies of the University of Heidelberg, the University of Zurich and the Cervantes Institute.

This collection investigates and disseminates the presence of Spanish on the European continent and, to date, volumes dedicated to the demolinguistics of Spanish have appeared in Germany, Switzerland, Portugal and a joint volume dedicated to Romania, Bulgaria and Moldova.

In the case of this new publication, ‘Demolinguistics of Spanish in Italy’, the situation of this language in Italy is analyzed, with an annex referring to the situation of the language in Malta, San Marino and Vatican City.

The presentation of the study took place at the headquarters of the Cervantes Institute in Madrid, in which the director of the Cervantes Institute, Luis García Montero, participated; Milin Bonomi and Maria Vittoria Calvi, researchers at the University of Milan and co-authors of the volume; Francisco Moreno, director of the Global Observatory of Spanish, and Carmen Pastor, Academic Director of the institution.

The study shows that Spanish is a language known or used (among speakers of native proficiency, limited proficiency and learners) by some 3,957,635 inhabitants of Italy, a figure equivalent to 6.6 percent of its total population, although All the data presented in this study are framed in the 2019/2020 academic year, the agreed deadline date for this collection of comparative studies.

Currently, French is mainly found as a foreign language and remains one of the most well-known languages ​​among older people. However, the study highlights that English is seen consolidating its position as the dominant language in labor and scientific relations at an international level.

SPANISH, THE MOST “CULTURALLY POWERFUL”

However, Spanish maintains its “strength” in domains related to cultural values ​​and “its possible validity as a language for global communication cannot be ruled out either, although this aspect is more difficult to estimate.”

In this sense, the report highlights several data related to the new millennium in Italy, where Spanish has registered growth as a learned language and, at the same time, has become one of the main languages ​​of immigration, “gaining visibility in many areas”.

Thus, from 2003 to 2020, Spanish-speaking immigration doubled (from 123,703 to 324,179 people) and the number of Spanish learners in secondary education multiplied by 12 (from 70,382 to 837,290 students). In this regard, the document indicates that the increase in learners is due “both to the attraction exerted by this language and to the measures in favor of languages ​​in the Italian educational system.”

However, the growing prestige of Spanish as a language of learning, with 922,722 learners between regulated and non-regulated education, is contrasted with the “undervaluation of the linguistic heritage” contributed by immigrants, to whom no Spanish as a language program is offered. of inheritance.

The volume specifies that a good part of Italian Spanish speakers reside in Spanish-speaking countries: 496,107 people, which represent 12 percent of Spanish users in Italy (and at least 128,988 of them have a native command of Spanish).

PRIORITY DESTINATION OF ITALIAN MIGRATION

In any case, in this decade analyzed, Spain has become a priority destination for Italian migration, since the number of Italians residing in Spain multiplied by ten between 2011 and 2020, going from 21,000 to 203,268 people. The key factors of these flows are both linguistic, cultural and geographical proximity, as well as job opportunities.

As for Italy, there are 324,179 Spanish-speaking immigrants residing, which in 2020 represent 6.4 percent of the total foreign population in Italy. Between 2000 and 2020, 201,594 Spanish-speaking immigrants acquired Italian nationality and this high number of nationalizations, together with good command of the Italian language, is an indicator of the group’s sociolinguistic integration.

In fact, Italy is the second country with the highest Spanish-speaking immigration from Latin America within the European Union, only behind Spain, and Spanish is among the top ten languages ​​of immigration.