They were promised $ 200 per week to support themselves while they were devoting themselves full time to learning French or $ 25 per day of part-time lessons. However, the processing times for their application for financial assistance in francization are so long that newcomers spend months studying without receiving this allowance.
“The allowances are not retroactive,” confirms further in a school service center in the greater Montreal area. In total, more than ten people from five different regions and who do not know each other testified at the To have to of this potential loss of income.
The Ministry of Immigration, Francization and Integration (MIFI) for its part claims not to have identified this problem.
The delays are a “factor of dropping out of francization”, nevertheless affirms a teacher from the region of Quebec who has just seen one of her students leave her classes for this reason.
“We used food banks, and I also had to go into debt while waiting to receive the first payment,” said Roberto, a father.
Like the teachers, technicians or students interviewed, he asked to keep his name silent. He says he is afraid of hindering his immigration. “We do not want to appear ungrateful as an immigrant or to make a mark on our file”, illustrates a young woman in Laval. Employees paid in whole or in part by the MIFI have a duty of discretion in the context of their duties.
Roberto is considering quitting his part-time job – and French education – to work full time: “We wanted to speak French better to have a better job and a better social life, but it is becoming very difficult,” he summarizes.
Like the other students who testified, he completed his registration application only in French, directly on the MIFI website, indicating that he wished to receive financial assistance to participate in the training.
Then he waited for an answer that has not yet come. In the meantime, the francization center called him back, he started his classes in September and has not received a penny since.
Could it be just a bad link between this center and the MIFI? It is difficult to conclude as follows because this ministry does not seem to have identified this problem: “We do not detect any issues in the system of payment of allowances, and we have not received any complaints about late or not overdue allowances. paid ”, writes a public relations officer To have to.
People “having sent a complete application” and having received their confirmation of eligibility “automatically receive financial assistance, at the latest, one month after the start of the training”, assures this ministry.
A lost session
However, the Navigators School Service Center is unequivocal on its page devoted to francization: “It is important to complete the application for financial assistance. [au MIFI] before coming to register because the processing time for it is at least 50 to 60 days ”, is it written in red on white.
A French teacher elsewhere in Chaudière-Appalaches also describes the delays as “interminable”: “It is recurrent that students lose two months of funding, or even a full session. “
To avoid this problem, she argues that students should postpone the start of their classes. “A contradiction,” she notes, however. “We tell them ‘wait two months for everything to be processed’, but also ‘start as quickly as possible’. “
“You must be available to start your course when you apply for registration. Your course can start quickly, even in the summer, ”writes the Québec portal on francization.
For others, the delays seem to come from “bureaucratic confusion”, believes a newcomer who studies French in Montreal: “I received the confirmation letter of my registration from MIFI, but it was indicated that I did not. was not going to receive any money. Over the phone, I was told that I finally qualified, but I haven’t received anything since the start in September. “
At least four of his comrades are considering giving up their full-time classes in order to find work. “Not knowing when the payment is going to come and waiting that long when you were counting on that money is really stressful,” she says.
Difficult communication
A professional who accompanies students in their registration for the MIFI in a center in Montreal estimates the processing time at two months. In the case of part-time courses, if a request is sent in the mail, “it’s going to take a month just to open the envelope,” he says.
The volume of requests may be the cause, he adds, since the number of beneficiaries has increased since the increase in allowances in 2019.
The Ministry invites the students concerned to file a complaint by calling customer service.
“In francization, calling the Ministry is the 12 works of Asterix. Even we get lost, ”says Tania Longpré, a French teacher in the northern part of the metropolis.
Another Laval student admits that she had to wait because she had not yet received her social insurance number when registering with MIFI. “I was told that I would not have an allowance, but it was not written why,” she laments. The lady then tried to telephone the Ministry, but being still at level 2 of the French course, she “quite simply did not understand”