The CAQ government is clear: more than ever, to become an economic immigrant in Quebec, you will have to prove that you master French.
In order to ensure that immigration promotes the sustainability of the French language in Quebec, it is promised that 96% of “principal applicants” will know French from 2026 among candidates for economic immigration (compared to 72% in 2018).
It is important to salute the efforts made by the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) regarding the francization of immigrants, a matter in which neglect has been the rule for too long in Quebec.
But as long as to clean up, Quebec should also update the test imposed on immigrants as soon as possible.
Because this test is designed in France, which is absurd.
And because, at the same time, the design of this exam, the target of many criticisms, should be improved.
A journalist from Dutywho recently took the oral part of this test, notably reported that most of the questions relating to comprehension are asked with a French accent.
She also pointed out that we use expressions or words that are used more in France than here. Describe the midday meal as lunch, for example. Or say that “it’s over” or that “it’s no pie”.
Not to mention that some of the questions are worded in such a way that even someone whose first language is French may have trouble answering them.
“There were questions I didn’t know what to answer. I clearly had wrong answers, I found it difficult or unclear and it was not related to the fact of understanding French or not ”, explained to us Catherine Xhardez, assistant professor in the department of political science of the ‘Montreal university.
This specialist in immigration policies, of Belgian origin, whose mother tongue is French, recently passed the test. She confirmed that we clearly feel that it is designed in France and not in Quebec.
This is neither normal nor desirable. And even less since this test is called to be the ultimate examination of skills for a greater percentage of economic immigrants who want to settle in Quebec.
The good news is that the Minister of Immigration, Christine Fréchette, is aware of this. Questioned in the National Assembly on this subject by the solidarity deputy Ruba Ghazal, she said she had asked her teams to “work to ensure that the tests are better adapted to the Quebec context”.
“There are references to Quebec that have already been introduced there, in several of the standardized tests. We want it to continue as a job,” she said.
PHOTO JACQUES BOISSINOT, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Christine Fréchette, Minister of Immigration
But why limit yourself to adapting a French test to Quebec? You can imagine the outcry if the French government used a test made in Quebec to assess the skills of immigrants…
So let’s dare to create a 100% Quebec exam from scratch! Perhaps a test designed by the Office québécois de la langue française, as suggested by Ruba Ghazal?
It is true that the Department of Immigration, for its part, has its work cut out for it.
Because if he has just inaugurated Francisation Québec with great fanfare, a one-stop shop where you can now find all the francization services offered by Quebec, we do not think that this file is settled.
The deployment of this system has only just begun. It will certainly have to be watched very closely, hoping that everything works as expected.
And let’s see to what extent the number of non-French-speaking immigrants who register for francization services will increase in the wake of the CAQ reform.
But in the meantime, let’s find a way to quickly offer immigrants who choose Quebec a French test designed here, able to assess their language skills in the best possible way.