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“French continues its decline”, headline The duty last year. Prime Minister François Legault extrapolated by predicting that Quebec would experience a “Louisianization” without a more vigorous immigration policy. This diagnosis lacks depth, replies a group of sociologists and demographers in a book to be published this week. Nothing beats a good economic policy to guarantee healthy French people.
The best barometer of the vitality of a language is its use in the public space, and “first and foremost at work”, attests Jean-Pierre Corbeil, one of the three directors of the collection of essays French in decline? Rethinking the Quebec Francophoniea brick of almost 500 pages.
French was used “regularly” by 94.4% of Quebec workers in 2016, a proportion unchanged since 2006, and practically identical to that of 2021. In the greater Montreal region, this proportion stood at 92%. You will agree, we are far from disappearance!
The specter of bilingualism is, yes, gaining ground. In Montreal, the “predominant” use of French at work decreased, going from 72.7% to 69.6% between 2006 and 2016. Its use “on par” with English increased, going from 7.1% to 11.4%. Is it the fault of American culture? Difficult French grammar? A whim ? Nay! ” It’s because [le bilinguisme] is a requirement of the labor market,” observes Victor Piché, another director of the work. Vigorous growth in the health, retail and construction sectors (characterized by an obligation to speak French), coupled with the decline in the manufacturing sector (where language matters little), explains the recent strengthening of French in Quebec. “From the moment you encourage foreign companies to come here, you automatically develop a more bilingual labor market,” emphasizes Victor Piché.
From the moment you encourage foreign companies to come here, you automatically develop a more bilingual labor market.
French remains “fragile”, he emphasizes. Hundreds of thousands of temporary immigrants have changed the situation on the job market in recent years. Offering them French courses remains essential for maintaining good linguistic health.
Bilingualism driven by the portfolio
Immigrants therefore do not study French for the beautiful eyes of René Lévesque. To push this hypothesis further, the researchers conducted a series of interviews with newcomers to understand their motivations for learning the Quebec language. “My motivation for learning French is that I want to negotiate my things [mon salaire] “, said one of them.
“The goal is to reach level 7 [de francisation] and obtain residency. This is the dream. With permanent residency, I can leave the country, visit my parents, I can come here, I can bring them, I can look for another open job, change employers, change the situation. At the moment, I am in a moment of investment,” says another.
It is therefore only once this “investment” in Quebec French has been amortized that newcomers discover the cultural advantages of the local language. As it is written in the text: “ […] when French is the language most used in the public sphere, immigrants with a mother tongue other than French display a higher degree of attachment to Quebec than immigrants with a French mother tongue. […] Knowledge of French brings a stronger feeling of belonging to Quebec. »
Multilingualism guaranteeing French
The game seems won, for the moment, at work. But what is going on behind the doors of the house? The use of French in households has declined: it was 82% in 1991, compared to 78% in 2021. This is an indicator that is not so important, they retort. First, Bill 101 never claimed to interfere in the private sphere. And then, this decline is mainly explained by the growth of third languages. As long as French remains the lingua franca of Quebec, multilingualism does not represent a real threat, demographers make us understand, since foreign languages have very little economic weight in America.
Statistics support this premise. In the immigrant population, French as the first official language spoken (between French and English) is experiencing an increase: the rate rose from 35% in 1971 to 63% in 2021. It must be understood that “French is gradually penetrating the family space as a result of its daily use at work, school and studies […] », Finally detail the authors.
This report is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.