The number of non-permanent residents in Quebec increased again at the end of 2023 to reach a total of more than 560,000 people as of 1er last January. An increase which can be explained in particular by the massive arrival of asylum seekers at the borders.
The latest count from Statistics Canada, made public Wednesday morning, was awaited by the government of François Legault, which has been asking for several months that asylum seekers be better distributed across Canada in a context of constant increase. The report, which covers the last three months of 2023, shows an increase of 32,000 people since the statistical agency’s last update, made public in December.
Among these new arrivals are nearly 177,000 asylum seekers, an increase of 16,000 since the last Statistics Canada count. This is more than Ontario which, at the start of the first quarter of 2024, had 125,000 on its territory.
While these data demonstrate a further increase in the pool of temporary immigrants, they still suggest a slowdown in the growth observed recently in Quebec. This is the smallest increase in the number of non-permanent residents in a year. As for work and study permit holders, as well as their relatives, there were more than 383,000 on the first day of the year.
Confronted with these data, on Wednesday, Quebec Minister of Immigration, Christine Fréchette, once again demanded that the federal government “take its responsibilities and distribute asylum seekers throughout Canada, in the other provinces” .
The CAQ elected official was preparing to meet her federal counterpart, Marc Miller, on Wednesday afternoon, during a work meeting. “Rest assured that this is one of the points that I will address,” she maintained. “We also have follow-ups to give to the meeting of the prime ministers. »
A little less than two weeks ago, Prime Ministers François Legault and Justin Trudeau agreed to find solutions to the meteoric rise in non-permanent immigrants. Mr. Legault said in particular that he felt an “openness” to the possibility that Quebec would have a right to review the admission of all temporary workers.
In addition to demanding action from Ottawa on this issue, Quebec is asking that the federal government pay it approximately $1 billion to compensate for the services offered to people awaiting asylum since 2021.
A lack of planning
Associate professor at Laval University, sociologist Jean-Pierre Corbeil is not surprised to see an increase in asylum seekers. “ [Leur nombre] has always varied between 10,000 and 15,000 from one quarter to the next. The trend continues,” he said on Wednesday.
Even if asylum seekers are fewer in number than temporary work permit holders, he understands the government, which is negotiating with Ottawa for more funding, to be concerned about it. But seeing asylum seekers as a threat to the French language and Quebec identity, as Minister Jean-François Roberge and Prime Minister François Legault have affirmed, constitutes an “overflow,” according to the researcher who studies linguistic data for over 25 years.
“The demands are completely legitimate from Quebec to ensure that there is better distribution,” he said. But if there were to be such a mechanism, it should be done “with a certain haughtiness and a certain dignity”, he added. “It shouldn’t be “you don’t speak French, so we’re sending you elsewhere”. […] We’re talking about human beings and not cans that can be changed to tablets. »
In a report on temporary immigration made public in mid-February, the French language commissioner, Benoît Dubreuil, suggested distributing asylum seekers across Canada based on language. “The increase in the non-permanent population observed in recent years is unprecedented,” he wrote.
Minister Fréchette saw fit in the following days to point out that the distribution of these new arrivals must be done “on a voluntary basis”.
With Sarah Boumedda