During the 48th Regional Studies Meeting, held in Cuenca, Spain, from October 16 to 18, 2024, the paper titled "Do Language Policies Affect Internal Migration in a Multilingual Country?" was awarded the Best Paper of the Conference, a recognition granted by the journal Investigaciones Regionales-Journal of Regional Research. The team of authors—Sebastián Ritter, Antonio Di Paolo, Raúl Ramos, and Vicente Royuela—was recognized for their significant contribution to regional science and the impact of their findings.

Paper Summary: This study examines the impact of implementing a language policy on internal migration flows within a multilingual context, using the introduction of the 1983 Language Normalization Law in Catalonia as a case study. Using a synthetic control method, the researchers constructed a counterfactual to measure the impact of this law, which introduced bilingual education and promoted the use of Catalan in regional and local public administration. The results indicate a reduction in migration flows to Catalonia due to the policy's implementation, suggesting that protecting minority local languages through language policies may have additional unintended effects on internal mobility in multilingual countries. The findings provide essential insights for designing language policies that balance the preservation of local languages with territorial mobility.

This recognition highlights the innovation and relevance of the work by the authors from the AQR-IREA research group at UB, underscoring its impact on regional science research.