The CAQ government has granted three times more money to immigrant aid organizations in 2023 compared to 2018. Despite this meteoric increase in funding, the amount offered struggles to meet the needs which are exploding throughout Quebec.
Open a bank account. Obtain your RAMQ card. Enroll your child in school. These simple actions prove to be real headaches for thousands of immigrants who choose to settle in Quebec. To help them, a small army of guides spread across a hundred organizations guides these new arrivals as they settle into the four corners of the territory.
More than 60 million dollars were made available to them this year by Quebec, while this total budget amounted to around 20 million five years ago. The swelling of this bill in many cases only covers half of the requests for aid, noted the Dutyand hundreds of immigrants find themselves without support.
60 million
“We welcomed 22 people in the first five months of 2020. This year [financière], in five months, we welcomed 124. That gives you an idea,” summarizes Valentin Brin, director of the Intercultural Mosaic in Rouyn-Noranda. “ […] Where it is problematic is that we are funded for 111 [personnes]. Starting this week, we are carrying out the ministry’s mandate on a voluntary basis. »
Organizations like his have established themselves in a few years as social pillars comparable to CLSCs for immigrants. Some offices in the Montreal region now have hundreds of employees.
Impossible to help all temporary workers
This boom in requests for support comes, among other things, from temporary workers. Before the Coalition Avenir Québec came to power, only those with permanent residence could benefit from support services financed by Quebec. Since 2019, temporary workers have also had access to these services. There are more than 470,000 of them in Quebec at present.
Foreign workers account for 75% of the clientele in Lac-Saint-Jean, for example. “We have to prioritize, reluctantly,” laments the general director of the Portes Ouvertes sur le Lac organization, Julie Gauthier, over the phone.
Before the pandemic, its team supported around sixty candidates with their integration each year. This year, “we are going to reach 600 people and we are funded for 250,” she illustrates. “We will prioritize families, those who have permanent residences, naturalized Canadian citizens. Those we prioritize less are asylum seekers, international students… But we want to help everyone! »
This shortfall is found in all Quebec regions, confirms Stephan Reichhold, director of the Table de concertation des organizations serving refugees and immigrants. “We’re about halfway through the year. [financière] and many organizations have already met the targets that the ministry had given them. So, we are in a bit of a crisis situation. There, we don’t really know what to do. »
The total budget of the Ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration has also experienced rapid growth in recent times. Its spending envelope will increase from $442 million this year to $727 million for the coming financial year.
This report is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.