This afternoon at the Palau de la Generalitat, the President of the Government of Catalonia, Pere Aragonès i Garcia, and the Catalan Minister for Foreign Action and European Union, Meritxell Serret i Aleu, presented the Catalan Expatriates Strategy 2023-2026, the first specifically aimed at the 500,000 Catalans living outside Catalonia.

The presentation took place on the occasion of the Commission for Catalan Expatriate Communities, which meets once a year to discuss the Government's objectives and specific initiatives in relation to the diaspora and Catalan communities living abroad. A body which, as President Aragonès explained, “helps us to orientate and deepen the Generalitat's foreign action and especially for those services, those actions that we carry out for the Catalans living outside our country”.

In particular, the head of the Catalan executive highlighted the Return Plan, an ambitious initiative integrated into the Strategy that strengthens and improves the services aimed at making it simpler for all Catalans living abroad to return to Catalonia. This is why Aragonès affirmed that “it is necessary to coordinate the mechanisms to maintain the links and ties with the country and at the same time facilitate all the attention and services that they may need”.

This plan, made with a cross-cutting approach, aims to “agglutinate, strengthen and improve all the services designed to make it simpler for all Catalans living abroad who wish to do so to return to Catalonia,” as the President of the Catalan Government explained.

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Aragonès highlighted some of the actions that will be carried out as part of this Return Plan, such as teaching Catalan to children and adults, the creation of a virtual space for people living abroad and the establishment of a grant programme to support organisations in 2024. Actions designed for “Catalans living abroad, reinforcing the care and support for the Catalan community abroad,” added the President.

The Plan is led by the Ministry for Foreign Action and European Union, in coordination with the Ministry of Equality and Feminisms and seven other Generalitat

ministries, and covers all areas that affect emigration and the return of talent: from housing to education, including employment integration and health services.

“The Return Plan must allow us to provide optimal conditions for Catalans who want to return to their country, offering them all services in a comprehensive manner,” said Serret. “We want to make the return attractive to Catalans,” she concluded.

“This is the first strategy in the history of the Government of Catalonia that encompasses all the policies aimed at our diaspora,” stressed Serret. The Minister added that it was created with the aim of being useful and has a cross-cutting view of the policies necessary for Catalans living abroad.

Services for Catalans living abroad are a priority for the Government. For this reason, the Minister stressed that in 2024 the Generalitat will work to set up a single point of reference that will bring together all the services for Catalans living abroad.

In addition, Serret explained that in the coming year, the Government will make efforts to ensure that Catalan expats will be able to vote normally in the European elections scheduled for June. Finally, the teaching of Catalan abroad will be another of the main areas of work.