It is an image that is enough to strike our mind: the population of Canada increased by 1,250,000 in 2023, while only 240,000 housing starts were made in the same year. Let us add to this that, still in 2023, 46% of Canada’s asylum seekers, an immigration category that requires the most resources, came to settle in Quebec, which is double our demographic weight in Canada ( at 23%).
Material and social pressure is growing and leading to legitimate concerns. But to begin the discussion, a basic distinction must be made between immigration and immigrants.
The immigrant is a person who wishes to settle in a new land by making the choice – or who finds himself forced – to extract himself from his original universe. In the debate, we wrongly limit our understanding to this strictly individual angle. Many people emigrate because they experience conditions in their country imposed by the world order and imperialism, which generate wars, poverty and corruption.
Canada is also not exempt from reproaches in this regard and participates directly or indirectly in this emigration. Population movements are therefore part of a global international dynamic that is worth taking into consideration.
Immigration, for its part, refers more to our local policies. Policies that we tend to simplify in public discussions with a number: that of immigration thresholds. And since the province only has one power in this area, we tend to orient our discussions around this one, economic immigration (a power which however finds itself limited, as the French-speaking immigration processes block in Ottawa, without us really understanding why).
But immigration is more complex, and to understand it, we must take several factors into account. First there are the different types of immigration: economic, humanitarian, family reunification, temporary workers and foreign students. Each has its own particularities and challenges. We must also look at the region from which the new arrivals come, since the ease of integration depends in part on it (if they speak French, or a language close to French, if their institutions are similar to ours, etc.) . We must also look at the region in which they will settle and the resources available there. Note that currently, 80% of Quebec immigration is received in the greater Montreal region.
True immigration experts would probably have several things to add to this short list, which further illustrates the complexity. But the complexity and delicate nature of a subject are not valid excuses for avoiding discussion. Far from being a simple distraction, immigration concerns everyone and it is a fundamental issue for our future.
This future, if we take it seriously, requires that we start by stopping oversimplifying the debate by speaking in terms of friendly against bad guys or to reduce immigrants to a simple “workforce” that fits into an “economy”. Ottawa’s speech in this regard is quite striking and its disconnection from reality is incomprehensible, even inexcusable. Because reality is made up of humans who carry a history and a culture which are added to a welcoming land made up of human beings who also share a history and a culture.
Agreeing to talk about immigration also means agreeing to break a taboo: that of Quebec culture. A unique culture in the world that is too often reduced to language. A language generally spoken of as a simple vehicle of communication. However, a language cannot live without being embodied in something. This implies the existence of a strong culture. And a strong culture is rooted in a language, in a territory and in a history.
A self-respecting democracy recognizes the importance of talking about delicate, complex and difficult subjects. It must be done, and responsibly. What partisan chapels do not allow.
Everyone’s legitimate fears and aspirations deserve to find a space to be expressed, and debates must be carried through to the end, even if they are difficult. We have been admirably able to do this with medical assistance in dying, and if we go back a little further, even since the Quiet Revolution. We were able to initiate important and responsible changes when we worked together for major collective summits. Let’s do it for immigration.
Let us offer ourselves spaces worthy of the name to discuss this issue as an adult society, to find solutions that pass not only through the State, but also through the organizations that make up our society and through our personal, individual and daily actions. . We all have a role to play. We can no longer afford to remain passive observers of such a phenomenon, which must be understood both in its entirety and in its specifically Quebec perspective. It is now high time for Quebec to organize a general meeting on immigration.