We are collectively ill-equipped to face the challenges of living together that accompany the long-term settlement of immigrants and refugees in Quebec. The intervention of public authorities to ease tensions related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the latest example demonstrating that reflection is needed.
As an immigration society, Quebec inevitably sees the cultural background of its population diversify. If this cultural diversity is a source of enrichment, it can also generate tensions. Meeting and cohabitation between groups with different cultural norms sometimes proves difficult.
Left to their own devices, intercultural tensions can produce misunderstanding and distrust, hinder successful integration and compromise the development of a sense of belonging to Quebec. In other words, public authorities must take living together seriously.
The creation of a Secretariat for Intercultural Relations is a promising idea that the Quebec government should seriously consider. It would bring together in a single central body the expertise in this area, which is currently scattered throughout the state apparatus. This body could notably support ministries and organizations in taking cultural diversity into account.
Taking living together seriously
Too often, immigrant communities are reduced in political and media discourse to a monolithic whole, when this is not the case. These communities diverge among themselves and are sometimes crossed by internal divisions which continue to be active in their new society of establishment.
Particular attention must also be paid to the complex relationships between the majority group of French-Canadian heritage and minority cultural groups from recent and long-standing immigration. The government has the responsibility to strengthen the bonds of solidarity and trust between these groups.
Making the majority even more welcoming towards people who have chosen Quebec and supporting the identification of minorities with a plural and unifying nation is constant work. Neglecting it would threaten social cohesion and, therefore, the continuity of a French-speaking society in North America.
In Quebec, we have collectively chosen to make immigration a response to our economic and demographic needs in a context of labor shortage, aging of the population and low birth rate. In this state of affairs, we do not have the luxury of making living together unthinkable and must now plan it better.
Better plan living together
To respond effectively to the challenges of living together, the government could create a Secretariat for Intercultural Relations. Its mission would be to contribute to the building of a plural and unifying Quebec nation through the development of harmonious intercultural relations and the fight against racism and discrimination.
Created within the Ministry of the Executive Council, this Secretariat would be an opportunity to bring together in a single box the expertise present in particular at the Office for Coordination of the Fight against Racism (Ministry of the Executive Council), at the Directorate of Linguistic Integration and intercultural education (Ministry of Education) and the Directorate of Intercultural Relations Policies and Programs (Ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration).
Among its mandates, the Secretariat would monitor the state of living together in Quebec based on objective indicators and the carrying out of surveys, particularly on the feeling of belonging. It would develop privileged links with community associations of civil society.
The Secretariat would also produce strategic thinking on issues affecting living together, like the federal organization Policy Horizons Canada. It would also provide expertise and recommendations to the government and its departments and agencies.
Finally, this public body would ensure the application of a future framework law formalizing the Quebec model of integration and living together. To date, no binding policy has clarified the government’s orientations in this area and affirmed its commitment to a pluralism that is uniquely Quebec.
In short, the Secretariat would no longer manage such important issues on a small-scale basis. In 2015, François Legault declared about “relations between the majority and minorities” that “we cannot, with a subject as important for a small nation like Quebec, do improvisation”. And he’s right.