Spain's no-future scenario raises the question of learning Arabic
A provocative suggestion that Spaniards should learn Arabic amid the country's economic no-future hides a blunt diagnosis of demographics, jobs and Spain's productive model.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
If Spain has no future, is it time to learn Arabic?
If Spain's economic future keeps going sour, the joke goes, we'd better start learning Arabic. The quip, thrown out as a provocation during a debate on the state of the country, blends demographic pessimism, a crisis in the productive model and a cultural unease that no macro figure captures. It is not just a throwaway line: there is a whole school of analysis that sees the decline as irreversible.
The argument is simple: with an ageing population and a labour market that never quite takes off, migration pressure from North Africa would gain ground. And with it, so the claim goes, a cultural shift that would force Spaniards to get by in Arabic to survive in their own country. The opposing view calls this an exaggeration: immigration does not equal linguistic imposition, and the economy, though weak, still has enough muscle.
The interesting thing is that both sides share a diagnosis: Spain has no credible plan for the future. Nobody suggests learning Chinese or English as plan B; the conversation has drifted towards one specific dystopia. There, somewhere between irony and antiestéticar, Arabic works as a metaphor for collective failure.
On this basis, the underlying question remains open: if the country does not fix its economic foundations, no survival language will be enough. And that is the one conclusion that allows no flippancy.
If Spain's economic future keeps going sour, the joke goes, we'd better start learning Arabic. The quip, thrown out as a provocation during a debate on the state of the country, blends demographic pessimism, a crisis in the productive model and a cultural unease that no macro figure captures. It is not just a throwaway line: there is a whole school of analysis that sees the decline as irreversible.
The argument is simple: with an ageing population and a labour market that never quite takes off, migration pressure from North Africa would gain ground. And with it, so the claim goes, a cultural shift that would force Spaniards to get by in Arabic to survive in their own country. The opposing view calls this an exaggeration: immigration does not equal linguistic imposition, and the economy, though weak, still has enough muscle.
The interesting thing is that both sides share a diagnosis: Spain has no credible plan for the future. Nobody suggests learning Chinese or English as plan B; the conversation has drifted towards one specific dystopia. There, somewhere between irony and antiestéticar, Arabic works as a metaphor for collective failure.
On this basis, the underlying question remains open: if the country does not fix its economic foundations, no survival language will be enough. And that is the one conclusion that allows no flippancy.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (28 replies).
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