Quebec has been battling for its proud French-speaking state for ages in a Canada that generally does not care, sighing in boredom between two front reformets. At various levels, all the governments of Quebec were concerned about the battles to be waged to resist the very vigorous assaults of English, among others in the field of education. The government of François Legault also wants to give more bite to Bill 101, because the Anglophone sling has never been so strong.
While on the political front the discourse is in defense of the French fact, the ground is full of inconsistencies which only call for indignation. How indeed to reconcile these two data? The spectacular explosion in the number of international students in Quebec colleges – up 369% in ten years – has mainly benefited English-language educational institutions. But in less than two years, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) turned down 35,642 candidates from the main French-speaking countries of the Maghreb and West Africa who wanted to come and study in Quebec.
A first raw analysis of the data unveiled last week by the journalist of the To have to Sarah R. Champagne suggests that the “system”, in its gigantism and bureaucratic indolence, discriminates at entry. Open the floodgates to English-speaking students from India and welcome them in full swing in unsubsidized private institutions in Montreal? Yes ! But accepting candidates enrolled in higher studies from the Maghreb and West Africa, two French-speaking areas? Nay!
The refusal rates for these two pools of very French-speaking speakers “are close to 100%”, denounce immigration lawyers, who cannot explain the virtual automatism in the rejection of applications that are however well defended – very solid financial record, among other criteria observed by immigration departments. Could a new automatic sorting system for applications in force since 2018 be partly the cause of these wholesale refusals? No one can certify this, but it could for example explain that, on the basis of very low average incomes per capita in some African countries, high quality files presented by individuals are discarded even before being analyzed. This question deserves to be explored.
The more we try to understand this great absurdity, the more we sink into contradictions. This one for example: a Congolese couple with a more than well-crafted financial file received their refusal response within a week from the Canadian authorities – already enough to raise eyebrows when we know that the question of endless delays in the processing of immigration files is the main problem denounced by Quebec. The argument we gave them? The immigration officer was not convinced that they would leave Canada after their studies. Would quit, yes. However, the official policies and the energy deployed by both the government of Quebec and that of Canada go in the completely opposite direction: that of working to keep foreign students on Quebec soil after the end of their studies. What to understand from this circus?
For the same countries of origin, Quebec sees its refusal rates higher than elsewhere in Canada, which could be explained in part by a lack of knowledge of immigration officers of the Quebec college system, some files being refused on the basis of a bad link between the study request and the candidate’s academic progress. This is to understand nothing: CEGEPs have existed since 1967 in Quebec.
Quebec, which here loses its footing and control over potential quality immigration within its own bosom, would be right to vociferate and claim full control over the influxes of entry to its borders. But he will also have to practice serious self-examination. If it has nothing to do with the refusal of French-speaking candidacies from Maghreb countries and West Africa, it is all the same in his own backyard that the huge increase in English-speaking foreign students – sometimes even enrolled in French-speaking CEGEPs.
In a study published by the Institute for Research in Contemporary Economics, Éric N. Duhaime paints an unequivocal statistical portrait: while the recruitment of foreign students to college has always historically turned to French-speaking areas, the trend is has been reversed since around 2017. In 2019, “more than half of international students in the college network came from India (7687), exceeding the number of students in France (4072)”. Lucrative market, diversion of mission for the education network and… significant impact on the language used in the streets of Montreal, whether we like it or not.