Waiting of several months, unpaid allowances, difficult file follow-up: six months after the launch of Francisation Québec, the service, completely overwhelmed, is experiencing failures, noted The duty.
Of the 62,000 complete files, 36,300 immigrants, or approximately 60%, are still waiting to start a course. “We saw a before and an after. And the observation is that Francisation Québec has made access to francization more complex,” said Guillaume Boivin, director of the center for immigrants Le Tremplin, in Lévis. With the result that waiting lists “have lengthened enormously”.
While they were “two months max”, delays now often seem to exceed the service standard of 50 days (approximately two and a half months) promised for full-time courses by the Ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration (MIFI). “I even have a client who signed up in June and just got called. That’s practically seven months,” argued Mr. Boivin.
The MIFI itself recognizes on its site that it will now take 75 days to process a file. Due to the “high number of requests” for full-time courses, “twenty-five (25) additional business days may be required to process your first request,” he wrote alongside his commitment to process any request in 50 working days.
Immigrant assistance organizations and those responsible for francization within school service centers to whom The duty spoke are unanimous: since the launch of this one-stop shop supposed to facilitate access to francization, immigrants are waiting more than before. “For full-time, I have people who have been waiting since September to have a place, but for part-time, I have people who have been waiting since July,” explains Sarah Toulouse, general director of ‘Reception and integration Bas-Saint-Laurent, specifying that half of its customers are still not in class.
Same story at Alpha Lira, in Sept-Îles, where some people registered last summer are still waiting to receive an invitation from the MIFI, confirmed Fanja Rajery, head of francization. “I think Francisation Québec is overwhelmed,” she says.
For the session starting in January, there would have been only four new registrations. However, several immigrants registered last fall are impatiently waiting to get started. “Let’s say that I myself went to get the information from our sector manager, and we unblocked certain files,” admitted Mme Rajery. Several immigrants were finally able to undertake part-time francization a few days ago.
Many pitfalls
The duty has received reports of numerous cases described as “absurd” by many. For example, an immigrant who is told that he is starting a course, but who does not appear on any list of the francization center, or another who is offered an online course although he has specified that he does not have any ‘computer. “His file was ultimately suspended because he was unable to attend this online course,” said a person who wishes to remain anonymous because they are in the process of resolving the problem.
A 16-year-old student would have even lost precious months on a waiting list for adult francization when he should have joined… a secondary school reception class!
The Director of Reception and Integration Bas-Saint-Laurent highlights the difficulty of simply following up on files, particularly for immigrants, such as Ukrainians, who do not already have a Quebec Selection Certificate or Acceptance Certificate of Quebec. “In these cases, the MIFI does not follow up to inform them if classes will start soon,” she noted. Immigrants are often bounced from one person to another, it is unclear who is responsible for what and this causes delays. »
Francization officials have also reported delays in the payment of $200 per month allowances to immigrants taking full-time courses. ” There are people [présentement en classe] who have not received their funding for September and October. This creates a certain distress in our student population,” indicated Claude Théberge, deputy director of the Navigateurs Adult Education Center (CEAN). “We took steps to help them, but we were told not to call the agents anymore [du MIFI] because they get too many calls about it. »
“Produce” people who speak French
The director of CEAN, Sophie Turgeon, for her part deplores the delay in transmitting the lists, which hampers her planning. “I need to know how many teachers I will need from one session to the next. [Francisation Québec] delays in providing the lists, and suddenly he sends us 200 names. The students are half ranked,” she explains. The entire evaluation process will have to be repeated, including that of the needs of the student, who could in the meantime have found work and no longer want to take a full-time course.
“We, at Navigateurs, want to work with individuals and help them with their integration. But it’s as if Francisation Québec just wanted to “produce” people who will speak French,” she continued. The Immigration Department denies any delay in the payment of benefits.
Furthermore, as of December 31, 2023, 66.4% of new students would have started their francization in 50 days or less. However, the ministry indicates that it is not able to isolate students who have applied for registration after the launch of Francisation Québec on 1er June. He recalls that 24,637 students were “active” as of January 10, 2024. “This number may include students who submitted their application before January 1er June (and who continue their journey with us session after session) and students who have submitted a request to Francisation Québec since 1er June,” said the MIFI.
The Minister of Immigration, Christine Fréchette, wanted to react to the situation. “The number of registrations exceeds our most optimistic scenarios,” she said. However, as in the rest of the education network, we are experiencing teacher recruitment challenges. »