Increase in immigration thresholds | “Suicidal”? No way !

Finally, it is not “a bit suicidal” for French to welcome more immigrants to Quebec.

Yet this is what Prime Minister François Legault said during the election campaign.

Eight months later, he is proposing to raise the immigration thresholds. This will have to be remembered when a politician again tries to woo part of the nationalist vote on the back of immigration…

This volte-face does not erase the unfortunate declarations of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) on immigration during the campaign. But we prefer a government that backs down when it is wrong than a government that persists and continues to be wrong.

For its second term, the CAQ is proposing two major changes in immigration: raising the immigration thresholds, and selecting only economic immigrants who speak French.

For the 2024-2027 immigration thresholds, the Legault government will choose one of the following two scenarios:

1. Gradually increase from 50,000 to approximately 68,000 permanent immigrants per year.
2. Maintain the threshold at 50,000 immigrants per year (the CAQ’s election promise).

We all understood this week that Quebec prefers the first scenario. The final decision will be made in the fall, after public consultations.

A few months ago, we asked ourselves what would be the optimal immigration threshold for Quebec. Our conclusion: between 65,000 and 70,000 permanent immigrants per year. We can only rejoice that the government is moving in this direction. He might even do it faster.

Also, we should be pleased that the Legault government is putting the Quebec experience program (PEQ) back on track, which aims to attract foreign students and temporary workers already in Quebec. The PEQ worked very well until the catastrophic reform of Simon Jolin-Barrette. Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette is proposing to somehow return to the old PEQ, with more requirements for French.

However, there are two major problems in the proposal unveiled Thursday by the CAQ. The first: only the number of economic immigrants is increased, and not the number of refugees and immigrants from family reunification (two types of immigration controlled by Ottawa).

Traditionally, economic immigration accounts for around 65% of immigration, refugees and family reunification, 35%. With the Quebec proposal, we would rather be at 70%-30%. We must continue to provide our effort and keep the proportion 65%-35%. It is a matter of social justice and equity.

The second problem of the Fréchette reform: only welcoming economic immigrants who speak French. This would be a first in Quebec.

We agree 200% with the objective of the Legault government to pay particular attention to the defense of French. French is an integral part of our Quebec identity. It must be pampered, valued and protected.

However, we do not believe that all economic immigrants should be required to know French before immigrating to Quebec.

It is unfair to make immigrants bear the fate of the future of French.

The reality is that Quebec immigrants… have never spoken so much French!

The proportion of immigrants who speak French and who have French as their first official language spoken has been increasing steadily since the 1970s.

The Legault government often repeats that French is in “decline” because the proportion of Quebecers and Montrealers who have French as their mother tongue or as the language spoken most often at home is decreasing.

However, French is not threatened because immigrants speak Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian or Creole among themselves at home. The important thing is that immigrants adopt French as their main language outside their homes, at work, in the public sphere and with their friends. And that their children go to school in French.

In the context where Quebec immigrants have never spoken so much French, it is considered too severe to select only French-speaking immigrants before their arrival in Quebec. We will deprive ourselves of the contribution of future Quebecers who will be able to learn French once there.

For decades, we have favored the arrival of francophone immigrants through a selection system for economic immigrants where knowledge of French is worth a lot of points. Thus, 88% of economic immigrants selected in 2022 spoke French (oral and written knowledge). This system can be improved without making knowledge of French compulsory. We must also do much better with our francization programs. From 2019 to 2021, Quebec has not even spent all the money sent to it by Ottawa for the reception, integration and francization of immigrants.

That said, if the CAQ goes ahead with this aspect of its reform, Quebec would not be the only place in the world to require that its economic immigrants speak its official language. The UK does the same with English for a work visa. In the rest of Canada, the main federal economic immigration program, Express Entry, also requires knowledge of English or French.

We must be able to calmly discuss these questions.