Catalan in Andorra: is it necessary to speak it?

Is it necessary to speak Catalan in Andorra? What is the official language of the country? What other languages are spoken? Do I need a Catalan qualification or some level of Catalan to live in Andorra? These are the type of questions that we will answer in this article.

In this article we are going to break down the languages spoken in the Principality of Andorra and its relationship with them. For those who don't know where is Andorra or how to go I recommend reading this article. Let us begin.

Official language in Andorra

The official language of Andorra, the small country of the Pyrenees, is Catalan. The Catalan It is a Romance language, also derived from Occitan, with about ten million speakers. Catalan is spoken not only in Andorra, but also in the areas of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, Valencia, and in some places in Sardinia and Murcia. That the official Andorran language is Catalan, although it is well known, there are people who do not know it.

Article 2.1 of the Constitution of Andorra of 1993 marks that "The official language of the state is Catalan." From there, the Law on the regulation of the use of the official language of 1999 which declares that Catalan is part of the Andorran identity, it is a fundamental element of its culture and it is in the public interest to preserve it in all areas, and that is the objective of said law.

Is Catalan spoken in Andorra?

Evidently yes, Catalan is spoken in Andorra, since it is a widely used language and as an official language it is the language of official communications and public administrations. However, due to tourism and immigration, in Andorra Other languages such as Spanish, Portuguese and French are also widely spoken. in that order. We must not forget that Andorra is located right between Spain and France.

Specifically, Spanish is spoken a lot in Andorra, because it has an enormous influence. In fact, in 2018 and in 2022 The Andorran Government made paths surveys called surveys of knowledge and linguistic uses of the population of Andorra. From these surveys and the Government's own communication it emerges the following table published on Wikipedia, where languages are classified according to whether they are used as the mother tongue and habitual language in the country:

Language	Mother tongue		usual language
	2018	2022	2018	2022
Catalan	35,7%	44%	55,2%	63,7%
Spanish	43,2%	40,3%	37,1%	48,6%
Portuguese	17,1%	13,5%	3,8%	6,6%
French	8,9%	10%	2,2%	5,7%
Other languages	6,8%	9,8%	3,9%	4,9%

Where as we see, Catalan is the most spoken native and habitual language, but Spanish is very close in both cases. This makes a lot of sense taking into account the data on Andorran residents by nationality. For example, taking the 2022 data from the demographic indicators of the Social Observatory, in Andorra there were 81,588 inhabitants (i.e. Andorran residents), of which:

• 38,867 were Andorrans (47.6%)
• 20,216 were Spanish (24.8%)
• 3,665 were French (4.5%)
• 8,777 were Portuguese (10.8%)
• And the rest (10,063, 12.3%) of other nationalities

Therefore, it is obvious that The number of Spaniards (also Andorrans, children of Spanish nationals) exerts a notable influence on the language spoken in Andorra. from Catalan to Spanish. You can read more data, studies and indicators at this page of the Andorran Government of “The language in Andorra”.

The new Law on the official language

After more than 20 years of the Law approved in 1999, The Government has approved the new Official Language Bill in the Council of Ministers remembering that "the official language is everyone's responsibility", following one of the points of the Strategic Culture Plan approved in the last legislature.

Among the regulatory changes are: those related to the learning Catalan for self-employed workers. In practice, these changes are substantiated in three:

• lthe obligation to prove basic notions of Catalan to obtain the first renewal of the residence and work permit
• lMinimum requirement of making the initial greeting in Catalan when serving the public
• Cknow the basic vocabulary of the profession

According to the Government itself, in no case is it about preventing the arrival of immigrants due to language, but rather promote the learning of Catalan once the person already resides in Andorra in order to integrate knowing the official language. It is also not believed to reduce foreign hiring. The justification behind this is that the majority of people with a residence and work permit work in public-facing sectors with strong customer service, such as services, health, retail, hospitality, restaurants, etc

In addition, two new organizations in charge of language policy are created:

• The Coordination Board on Language and Training, which will have an administrative and sectoral character.
• ANDl National Council for Language, with a political and social character.

The text also proposes the participation of General advice, the Government and the commons, with a technical administration of the Language Policy Department. Furthermore, the Bill also refers to the use of Catalan in the Justice administration and in alternative conflict resolution, establishing the use of translators and interpreters for people involved in a procedure and they don't understand catalan.

Who needs a qualification or level of Catalan?

It is important to remark that The new requirements for knowledge of Catalan apply only to workers, that is, to people who have a residence and work permit. (as an employee). And they will have to be accredited for the first renewal of said residence permit, with a minimum level.

In our article about being self-employed in Andorra we explain that the titled profession It is the only way to obtain an Andorran residence permit by practicing as "self-employed", that is, as a qualified professional. And we name the Catal B2 qualification requirementan due to the approval of the Law 42/2022 of December 1 of the digital economy, entrepreneurship and innovation.

Therefore, given the current applicable legislation, a level of Catalan is required for:

• Those people who want to settle in Andorra as qualified professionals (Title B2)
• Those hired people, foreign employees who are going to renew their residence and work permit for the first time (level A1)

Mònica Bonell maintains that the decision to apply this regulation to people who have a residence and work permit is because the majority of them work in the service sector, in shops and hospitality, facing customers, and what is The aim is that these immigrants can initially present themselves to clients in Catalan, knowing the basic vocabulary. The minister does not consider that this requirement reduces the hiring of foreign workers in Andorra. Rather, it will serve to encourage the use of Catalan and is a norm that many countries belonging to the European Union currently have.

Who is affected by this new Catalan legislation?

This new law affects all salaried Andorran residents hired in 2023 onwards, since it is a law that comes into force in 2024 and affects the first renewal of the residence permit. It is estimated that they constitute a total of 3,000 people.

Instead, this legislation The Catalan requirement does not apply to people holding self-employed residence permits or passive or non-profit residence permits. And neither do seasonal workers with temporary residence permits or border workers.. That is to say, that the youtubers and other content creators, traders, retired and in general the profiles of entrepreneurs and digital entrepreneurs and passive residents are excluded from the application of the requirements.

Valid Catalan qualifications and accreditations

People who have to make the first renewal of the residence and work permit in 2024:

• If they already have a Catalan qualification (from A1 to C2) they will have to pass a exam expected to be oral
• If they do not have a degree, they must complete a 30 hour training course, having a maximum period of one year to complete it.

It should be noted that The Government of Andorra offers free Catalan courses, for people over 16 years of age and Andorran companies. They can be done both in person and online, and at six levels (from A1 to C2). In addition, two different modalities are offered:

• Extensive course: composed of three hours per week from September to June
• Intensive course: composed of four hours per week, from September to January or from February to June

As for the qualifications obtained in other territories, The Andorran Government, together with Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencia, are moving towards mutual recognition of Catalan certifications. In this sense, previously The Government expanded the ways to obtain recognition of the level of Catalan within Andorra to those students who have studied in the country, be it the Andorran, Spanish or French system.

Now, although the validation between the four territories is not complete, all of them They have shared the information from their evaluations and have published tables of equivalences between certifications, according to the territory of issue and the territory of validity. In the case of Andorra, it can be consulted in the section Official Catalan exams at this link.

Thus, for example, for the case at hand, which is the B2 Catalan qualification (since it is required in the titled profession), we have the respective equivalence table of the Government of Andorra. Looking at the document, we can see that:

• Degrees obtained in the Balearic Islands are not recognized in Andorra
• Degrees obtained in Catalonia and Valencia, depending on the institution that issues the degree, are either recognized directly or must be consulted with the corresponding territory.

Unjustified controversy

The truth is that the approval of this Law has caused an avalanche of registrations in Catalan centers, due to a knock-on effect on the people to whom this legislation will apply. But it has also caused a wave of controversy that has reached the Spanish press and television.

Part of the controversy has arisen because, as we have explained, YouTubers and other content creators are not subject to this Catalan level requirement.. Something we can also check in this TV3 article. On the other hand, some YouTubers like Agustín51, who apparently has not understood the legislation very well, calls it a "dictatorship" the fact of requiring immigrants to have a minimum knowledge of the official language. Even though it doesn't apply to them.

However, removing sensationalism, media and clickbait, the truth is Most content creators and entrepreneurs wouldn't care this measure and would be willing to abide by it, many of them even with a certain impetus and applauding it. In any case, and we insist again: at the moment entrepreneurs and self-employed workers, passive residents, seasonal workers and border workers do not require this minimum level of Catalan.