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northern Catalans live their lives by a set of guidelines that
everyone is more or less familiar with. After a Catalan upbringing
the economic constraints push numerous residents into ‘exile,’
França endins, in the interior of France. This phenomenon,
which appeared directly after WWII and accelerated in the 1960s
following the Catalan economic crisis, has given many generations
of young women and men a career in the mid-north of France.
This wave of economic exile which attracted people to the public
service professions in the name of freedom of mobility nevertheless
spared Parisian residents who arranged their employment nearby.
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This
brain drain, a true demographic subtraction, drove a retreat
of the social ties, a loss of dynamism and a deficit of creativity
in the Catalan region already marginalised by history. Today,
although declining slightly, the movement shows two contrasting
behaviours. The northern experience can inspire the Catalan-in-exile
to rediscover their culture and language in defense of Catalonia,
and often they return to the region for retirement. According
to this method the first and the last portions of their life
is lived in Catalan spontaneity. The other ‘Northern Catalan’
fit the French mould, convinced that distance will breed success,
they force themselves to erase their Catalan characteristics,
but their natural Catalan accent can re-emerge in an intense,
emotional situation. The retreat comes from people of simple
Catalan origins who pursue their lives in the French region
where they settle their families and where their customs are
anchored. These two behaviours, freely chosen, are a constant
of the Catalan portrait.
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