The most defeatist speeches will say that it is the knowledge of English, and not of French, that would most benefit an immigrant seeking work in Quebec. Demonstrating just the opposite, a recent longitudinal study concludes that not only is French an important factor in economic integration, but also that it plays a positive role at the start and end of the process, unlike English, which would be beneficial only at the beginning.
These findings, which debunk certain received ideas, are those of a team from the Canada Research Chair in Global Migration Dynamics at Laval University, who will present them on Tuesday, May 9, as part of the Acfas Congress. . “It is therefore a reversal of trends, even a real revolution in the linguistic context of the labor market where French has become an important asset”, argue the researchers. By this they mean that, both upon arrival and after ten years of living in Quebec, an immigrant who knows French will generally have a better income, but also better access to jobs than an immigrant who has never learned French. language of Molière.
A first longitudinal study that followed immigrants over ten years, from 1989 to 1999, showed that knowledge of French on arrival — like that of English — had no significant effect on their income and access to the first job, in particular. However, twenty years later, in their new study, which also spanned ten years, from 2007 to 2017, the researchers found that knowledge of French has become essential for an immigrant, one year after his arrival and even ten years after. “It became clear that French plays a role all the time, at the beginning and at the end of the course,” says the Duty Victor Piché, demographic sociologist and honorary professor at the University of Montreal.
“Upon arrival, people who don’t speak French and who speak English will find jobs in English temporarily, but if they want to have access to the job market and a better income, they will have to take up French. The advantage of English is disappearing,” adds the researcher, who came to these conclusions with Université Laval professors Danièle Bélanger and Charles Fleury.
French on the rise at work
The linguistic context has changed, and it no longer compares to that of the first study, conducted in the 1990s. Knowledge of French among immigrants has increased, argue the researchers. And between 2006 and 2016, the period corresponding to the cohort of the new study, immigrants using French in the labor market were more numerous, going from 50% to 53%.
In interview at Duty, Victor Piché also explains the importance of French by the logic of supply and demand. “We are always talking about users and their choice of language, but we have to take into account the demand as well. You may want to speak French as an immigrant, but if the labor market is Anglophone, you will learn English. That was the case in the 1970s,” he says. “We are now seeing a reversal of the trend which, in our opinion, can be explained by the francization of the labor market. There is a demand for French. »
The researcher is inspired by the conclusions of a recent study by François Vaillancourt, an expert in public policy and linguistic issues, which showed that the demand for French has increased over the last decades in the labor market, in particular due to the emergence of Francophone entrepreneurs.
The researchers in the study also observed a migration in the sectors of activity, ie a shift from the secondary sector (manufacturing-construction) to the tertiary sector (services), the latter requiring more knowledge of French.