This text is part of the special Scientific Francophonie notebook
Labor shortages, growth gaps between countries and even migratory movements are leading to demographic changes across the globe. How can French-speaking education and research systems inspire each other to face these upheavals?
If people from immigrant backgrounds in Quebec fill part of the labor need from which certain sectors still suffer, “there remains work to do to integrate them professionally,” believes Chantal Asselin, lecturer in education at UQAR and trainer at the Research Institute on Immigration and Intercultural and Inclusive Practices.
Non-profit organizations specializing in immigration and integration face fierce competition for funding, “which does not promote knowledge sharing,” deplores M.me Asselin. Conversely, for some time now, funders of university researchers specializing in the field have required teamwork to obtain grants, “which has the advantage of promoting more efficient collaboration”.
Lack of knowledge of work structures
When they arrive here, people from immigrant backgrounds “don’t know what a union is or don’t know the health and safety standards,” says the teacher. Some attendants for newly arrived beneficiaries are unaware, for example, that there are reserved acts or that the uniform is obligatory for security reasons. In vocational training centers, training is more focused on the technical aspect to respond to the urgent need for labor, but neglecting the teaching of structural functioning generates “imbroglios which take on gigantic proportions and make it difficult for these people to integrate, which feeds prejudices and fuels a defensive posture among them. »
The Parameters careers laboratory, which offers educational guides to vocational training teachers and their students, aims for a better match between training and employment. This “should be exploited more in Quebec”, argues Mme Asselin. The team she is part of within the laboratory has also contributed to strengthening and upgrading professional training in Gabon. A few years ago, she also obtained funding from the Ministry of International Relations and La Francophonie of Quebec for two projects aimed at developing and solidifying training and research partnerships with teachers in professional training in Morocco and in Haiti.
Marrying companies and training organizations
To keep students and employees from immigrant backgrounds in our system, “the marriage between companies, institutions and training centers is essential. We do it, but not enough,” maintains the trainer, who cites Switzerland as an example, where it is possible to follow “dual” training courses allowing you to train in a company while following professional training courses. “A newly arrived doctor will, for example, be invited to follow training to become an auxiliary nurse. He will quickly integrate into the workplace and will then be able to continue his training. »
In Belgium, Hospi’Jobs is a program for the integration of people from immigrant backgrounds in hospitals that the lecturer wishes to implement here, in collaboration with the Belgian scientific director of the Institute for Research, Training and Action on migrations, Altay Manço. The principle? As part of a 15-week internship, immigrants who speak little French, who have little education and who are not part of the European Union spend four weeks directly in their future work environment and take French lessons. adapted to the profession they will practice.
The brain drain
Growth differences between countries obviously encourage the migration of researchers to industrialized countries. “Many university students leave Central Africa for Europe or the United States, because the research bonuses there are excessively greater,” notes Prince Octave Adouma, researcher at the Center for the International Development of Economic and Social Movements ( CEDIMES).
Although this allows them to help their families back in their country of origin, “they contribute to the economy of the host country rather than their own” and rarely return to work there. Senegal and the Maghreb countries, by increasing research bonuses each year, achieve, for their part, a certain retention of researchers and teachers, but “few African countries have these means”, indicates the researcher.
The ethical problems raised by this type of situation are also the reason recently given by the provincial government to stop recruiting nurses in most African countries. In particular to allow the countries concerned to keep at home the nurses on whom they have invested the cost of training, according to information obtained by Radio-Canada.
This content was produced by the Special Publications team at Dutyrelating to marketing. The writing of the Duty did not take part.