It is rather embarrassing for a government that claims to be very concerned about the francization of immigrants to do the opposite of what the experts it has commissioned to study the issue in depth and advise it on recommend.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
It’s rather embarrassing, but that’s what happened with certain measures contained in Law 96.
For the francization of the most vulnerable newcomers to take place as well as possible, the first thing to do is to ensure their well-being so that they are in better learning conditions. First you have to give them time. The time “to settle down, to settle down” before starting their lessons.
This is the very first recommendation of a hidden research report that I obtained under the Access to Information Act
the Legault government having refused to make it public in the wake of the debates surrounding Bill 96.
I have already mentioned the existence of this “invisible” report, submitted in April 2021 to the Ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration (MIFI), whose recommendations go against Law 96. (1). It should be noted that this update to Bill 101 imposes a six-month period beyond which newcomers cannot be served by the State in a language other than French, unless “health, public safety or the principles of natural justice require it” — exceptions whose exact scope remains to be clarified.
The large-scale research project, led by Garine Papazian-Zohrabian, professor in the Department of Psychopedagogy and Andragogy at the University of Montreal, clearly shows how this six-month period is as unrealistic as it is inhuman for immigrants more vulnerable.
Photo MICHEL DESROCHES, PROVIDED BY MRS PAPAZIAN-ZOHRABIAN
Garine Papazian-Zohrabian, professor in the department of psychopedagogy and andragogy at the University of Montreal
When I asked the MIFI last month to send me the study in question, they refused on the pretext that it had been done “for administrative purposes”.
We quickly understand by going to read the 148-page report up there on his hidden tablet that it is perhaps not so much for administrative reasons as for political reasons that he has been placed away from the prying eyes.
In the office of the minister responsible for the French language, Simon Jolin-Barrette, it is claimed that there is “no inconsistency” between the report’s recommendations and the six-month period provided for in Bill 96. is not the way I read it or that of Professor Papazian-Zohrabian who, like me, is in favor of better francization. “I fully understand the need to strengthen French and make it the common public language. At the same time, we must take the right means to do so. Respectful means towards these vulnerable populations. »
The six-month rule does not meet these criteria, even if some believe that it is already “generous” compared to the more assimilationist models of France or other European countries. This is to forget that Quebec is ahead of Europe in this respect. Imitating Europe does not take us forward on the path of harmonious integration, quite the contrary.
If francization were really important in the eyes of the government, we would have understood by reading this study that the refugees who arrive here with their share of trauma and try to survive in precarious conditions need more time, flexibility and support to be able to to learn a new language.
We would have listened to the francization teachers who bear witness to the difficulty of teaching people fleeing the war, concerned about the fate of their families left behind. We would still have listened to those teachers who deplore ministerial rigidity and the lack of time and appropriate resources. “In general, the program is not long enough in my opinion”, says one of them, adding that it is “a little crazy” to think that an illiterate person can become functional in French in one single year.
If francization was important, we would have supported and valued more the teachers at the end of their rope whose mission it is. Like this professor who explains the energy it takes to teach people in distress: “It burns you because you are managing several fires at the same time, OK? »
If francization was important, we would have understood that to be inflexible with a refugee who does not master French well enough after six months to discuss his child’s academic difficulties or his right not to be exploited does no one a favor. . Neither to the refugee himself, nor to his child, nor even to Quebec society, which wants these people to be able to integrate in French. In a humane and efficient way. With the collaboration of William Leclerc,
The Press
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