Abstract
The new Spanish nationality law requires a certain level of Spanish language proficiency for the application of Spanish nationality. The law, which is on the Official State Bulletin (BOE-Boletin Oficial del Estado) N. 167, Section I, Page 58, 149 and which was drafted on the 14th of July, 2015, came in effect on the 15th of October, 2015. The new regulation outlined the new requirements for the immigrants to be able to become Spanish citizens. The law was mainly targeted towards the descendants of those Jewish people who were thrown out of Spain in 1492 in an effort of the Spanish government to normalize relations. Nevertheless, all new applicants are somehow affected by it since a minimum knowledge of Spanish language is required, (level DELE A2 according to the Common European Framework of Reference for languages (CEF; Council of Europe, 2001 & Little (2005)) and a certain cultural and constitutional knowledge as well, to be measured by additionally passing the CCSE exam. These exams, according to the law, are to be administered by Instituto Cervantes, the official Institute of Spanish language of the Government of Spain. This paper aims to study the repercussions and new effects the law is having on the Pakistan Instituto Cervantes Examination Center in terms of enrollments as well as the effects on a specific group of immigrants themselves; the immigrants from Pakistan.
Highlights
A “language tests for citizenship” regime refers to a policy, implemented in a growing number of countries of the world, especially in Europe, requiring immigrants to pass language tests in national and/or official languages of the state as major conditions for obtaining citizenship regardless of length of residence, status, employment, income, education and background (Shohamy, 2009).It is a different migration situation characterized by a stable community of Pakistanis, who in the majority of the cases find themselves in a ghetto in Barcelona where they reside and work in businesses or doing petty jobs
This paper aims to study the repercussions and new effects the law is having on the Pakistan Instituto Cervantes Examination Center in terms of enrollments as well as the effects on a specific group of immigrants themselves; the immigrants from Pakistan
The sample of this study is 34 Pakistani candidates from Barcelona who participated in the DELE A2 examination and their collective result on each part of the exam
Summary
A “language tests for citizenship” regime refers to a policy, implemented in a growing number of countries of the world, especially in Europe, requiring immigrants to pass language tests in national and/or official languages of the state as major conditions for obtaining citizenship regardless of length of residence, status, employment, income, education and background (Shohamy, 2009) It is a different migration situation characterized by a stable community of Pakistanis, who in the majority of the cases find themselves in a ghetto in Barcelona where they reside and work in businesses or doing petty jobs. Instituto Cervantes is the official Institute of Spanish language It was created as a non-profit organization on May 21st, 1991 by the Government of Spain, under the leadership of its president, Felipe Gonzalez, with the purpose of spreading the teaching of Spanish language and culture all over the world. The following table depicts the countries where the branches of Instituto Cervantes are located
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