In November 2019, I attended a lecture on Euskera and sociology at the San Telmo Museum in San Sebastian, on the occasion of a conference on Euskera. About thirty people approached the room to inform us of the results of a sociological study carried out by the City of Donostia. Most of us were friends over the age of forty.

When they began to publicize the research work, I was struck by the fact that the person who carried out the research was not Euskaldun. I found it strange, but I listened carefully to your explanations.

The main objective of the study was to record the use of Euskera in the street in the Basque Autonomous Community. After several months of fieldwork on the street, after performing statistical analyses, we were told the results in the talk, in Spanish.

We were shown use maps in some places where the presence of the Basque country is higher and in others lower. In the neighborhoods of Martutene and Altza de Donostia-San Sebastián, for example, the Basque country has only a 10% presence on the street. I was not surprised, because there are reasons for that.

When they started to unpack the details of the study, I found some of the parameters of the study remarkable. One of them was the size of the homes and the income level of the neighbors. According to the study, housing is larger in the areas where Euskaldunes live and economic income is also higher than average. In other words, the study shows the bourgeois image of the Basques: we have more money than those who only speak Spanish and we live in larger dwellings.

This parameter seemed strange to me. Is housing size important? However, I found it more curious that the study did not make any reference to another variable or obvious reason behind the current situation of the Basque Country, that is, it did not analyze the influence immigrants have on the Basque country. How has the study not linked the presence of immigrants and the decrease in the use of Euskera? It is clear, in my opinion, that the massive presence of people from other countries 60 years ago has diminished the use of Euskera in Altza. Why does sociological research not report this?

About 60 years ago, Altza was a neighborhood of villages and most of its inhabitants were Basque. From that time on, the dwellings were demolished and instead large housing blocks were built to accommodate families from Spain. This arrival completely changed the situation and significantly decreased the number of autochthonous, vasco-speaking. From then on, most of the neighbors were castillanos and did not speak in Basque.

As in Altza, this has happened in many other towns and neighborhoods of the Basque Country. Sestao, Barakaldo, Portugalete, Errenteria and many other places are good examples of this.

I asked the researcher about it. But he told me that my conclusions were false. In his view, what the investigation explains to us is just the opposite. Research discards some of the things we thought. For example, we have always linked the rural world with the Basque country, and according to the study that is wrong, since many towns in the Alavesa Plain do not speak Basque.

I couldn't believe it! How could I say that? It has been five hundred years since the Alavesa Plain did not speak Basque, and I told you that. Castile conquered in 1200 the Alavese lands, which until then were from Navarre, and the Basque Country began to disappear gradually since then. The situation in Álava is very different.

After the presentation of the study, I have reflected on the subject. Perhaps it is no coincidence that this sociological research has not taken into account the influence of immigrants. If the study said something like this, “among the conclusions we have drawn it is clear that immigrants harm the Basque Country”, the phrase would not be politically very nice. It would smell racism. But what is the objective of research work, analyzing reality or making politics?

Today, in our Basque Country, hypocrisy towards this issue is evident in all public and private institutions. The institutions do not have the courage to deal with mass immigration and, in order not to criticise them, they give support to immigration, including economic ones. The situation is not easy, as everyone who criticises such massive immigration is called racist. Freedom of expression is, in fact, very limited at present. This being so, how will a sociological study dare to say something like this?

Are we prepared to see the Basque Country, Euskal Herria and the other small nations of Europe disappear along with the wave of immigration? This is the obvious danger of mass immigration. There is nothing more to do with what has happened to the Basque Country in the 100 years of industrialization, as it has suffered more damage than in the previous 10,000 years. Euskal Herria has three million inhabitants and there are many people of Basque origin around the world, but we only speak Basque about 700,000. This is a very important point to bear in mind.

Some say that children under 40 are Euskaldunes in the CAV, because in their schools they have had the opportunity to learn Euskera. But that's not true. Because our educational system does not guarantee at all that all the people who study in the CAV are able to communicate in Basque. We just have to go to Altza or Bilbao and try to speak in Basque with anyone who is 30 years old. We Basques live in a bubble and often back to reality.

Turning to the main argument, I have to repeat the question: Are we prepared to question the diversity of the world in order to protect the rights of immigrants? Let us not be hypocritical. As a result of our passive conduct, nations, languages, races and cultures are in the process of extinction. It's no use crying later.

The issue must be tackled and the debate on mass immigration, without complex or insulting, must be opened up, because the rights of immigrants are compatible and the guarantee of our existence.