We learned last week that there were now 9 million Quebecers. Some saw this as bad news for Quebec, arguing that this significant growth in our population was a sign that we were moving towards the end, nothing less, of French Quebec.
This theory defies all logic: the fact that the Quebec population can continue to grow despite the low birth rate allows us to renew an aging population. It also allows us to maintain our political weight within Canada, to increase the number of French speakers in the long term to protect French in Quebec and, obviously, to have an enviable or, at the very least, viable economic strength.
Those who are devastated by these figures might retort that we would not have to worry about Quebec’s political weight within the federation if we were a country.
Technically, this is not wrong. However, they fail to say that even if Quebec were sovereign and even if we closed the doors to immigration, our identity, our language, our economy could not survive, if we rely on the recorded birth rate.
And they know it.
It seems that they would prefer that Quebec die out as a nation, among native Quebecers, rather than that it could potentially shine and prosper with Quebecers from elsewhere.
So, let us say things as they are: these people are devastated by this significant increase in our population because it comes from immigration, this source of collective unhappiness.
They have broad backs, immigrants: they put pressure on public services, they dilute the identity of Quebec, they threaten the French language, they refuse to integrate, they do not go to the regions, they speak their language at home, they don’t watch our TV, our culture and our shows…
We will soon criticize them for having too many children, eating spicy foods and, one day, we will find that an immigrant contributes more to greenhouse gas emissions than a so-called native Quebecer.
Let’s say things as they are: Quebec could not survive without immigration. Whether it is sovereign or not, the future of Quebec is intimately linked to its capacity to receive, integrate and Frenchify forces from elsewhere. If it hurts you to read this, maybe it’s not the immigrant that’s the problem.
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