We have recently held a meeting in Vitoria-Gasteiz to welcome the Basque world, organised by the Council of Euskalgintza and the Basque Government. One of the main current challenges of the revitalization process of the Basque Country is to make allies with the new citizens who come to us to achieve this goal. In other words, to promote the knowledge and use of the Basque Country, it is essential to offer the newcomers an appropriate linguistic reception that facilitates the transmission and learning of the Basque Country, as well as its incorporation into the Basque community as an active member. Inclusiveness and social participation are fundamental to making Euskera-related language policy a success and, to do so, we need more effective methodologies and policies. By the way, let us not leave it behind only the newcomers, all the responsibility for the revitalization of the Basque country, since management and reception should be appropriate in all situations in which the variable of language appears, from administrations to companies and institutions of all kinds, shows the importance given to the management of languages.

Unfortunately, I would say that, in general, these practices are very few. In view of the new additions, some of them were released in the days. The world of education has a special importance to bring the newcomers, students and their families, the Basque country and the Basque culture closer together. For this, it is essential to eliminate the ghettos that with the newcomers are usually created and that are among us; in the whole of Euskal Herria, in all its extension, we have some well-known examples. These centers are a missed opportunity to attract new students and their families to the Basque community, which finds it very difficult to create direct experiences and relationships related to the Basque country. The acquisition of basic knowledge of Euskera in an environment is not easy, without the necessary means and tools, and without detecting the possibility of use in the environment.

What is happening in other areas is also worrying. For example, the achievements in the socio-economic field in recent decades are in jeopardy, as there may be setbacks in companies in the Basque Country in which the Basque Country is being managed, due to the difficulties that exist in making new hiring or replacing retired people. On many occasions, the metaphor of the crossing is used in relation to the revitalization of the Basque country. Well, in this case, if we do not address the issue, we run the risk of going backwards, even those who in recent decades have carried out proper management of languages, now that they have difficulty in continuing to offer the service in Basque, and in working in Basque.

I am seeing more and more that in some public institutions, companies and businesses that used to serve in Basque there are no more opportunities to do so. Does the Basque Country have any presence in the training given to new hired workers? Who is working on a large-scale planning of the treatment that Euskera should have in the reception of these new workers? The administrations are defining the objectives and priorities for the coming years, to increase the possibilities of learning more and more easily in Euskera, to achieve a more Euskaldun extracurricular ecosystem, to make Euskera more accessible in the digital environment, to increase the possibilities of working in Euskera in the public and private socioeconomic sphere... The incorporation of the new workers and their families into the Basque world will be essential on the road to these objectives, and we now have to make an effort to do so, in order to be able to adequately welcome those who will come in the coming years.

As Andoni Egaña said the other day, although we count in Basque, almost everything happens here in Spanish. One and the other side of the border. Appropriate partnerships will have to be stitched to face up to the challenges with guarantees and reverse this situation.

Rober Gutiérrez