Xavier Xia
Many industries here in Quebec are facing a critical worker shortage. Even though many people argue that the current situation could be alleviated with the help of immigrants or temporary foreign workers, the government of Quebec regards immigrants as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, immigrants will boost to help fix the labour shortage and develop Quebec’s economy in this post-pandemic period. On the other hand, the government of Quebec is afraid of the status of the French language with the influx of non-Francophone immigrants. The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) candidate for Trois-Rivières, Jean Boulet, made the comments during the provincial election campaign: “Eighty percent of immigrants go to Montreal, don’t work, don’t speak French, and don’t adhere to the values of Quebec,” he said. “The key is regionalization and francization.” Although he apologized for his comments which “didn’t express his thoughts well,” he was criticized by his competitors and the public. The premier of Quebec, Francois Legault stated that it would be suicide to accept more than 50000 immigrants a year; he also tied immigrants to violation and extremism. It seems that Quebec is in a dilemma, it is obvious that Quebec needs to welcome more and more immigrants to address the worker shortage problem. Nevertheless, the government of Quebec privileges the protection of the French language even at the cost of the development of Quebec’s economy.
According to Statistics Canada’s most recent report on Quebec immigration between 2011 and 2016, Quebec received 215,170 immigrants. Of those, 179,270 (83 percent) went to Montreal. The most immigrants during that period came from France (20,030), followed by Haiti (16,875), Algeria (16,380) and Morocco (13,480). Cameroon (7,555) and Tunisia (5,850) are also on the list, along with non-French speaking countries China (10,705), Colombia (7,540), Iran (7,505) and Syria (7,460).
It seems like a paradoxical situation. For the preservation and purity of linguistic and cultural heritage, Quebec is putting its financial stability and growth at stake. There needs to be a middle ground which encourages and facilitates immigrants to settle down in Quebec and embrace its culture and language as expected by the government. However, restricting immigrants to the province and imposing strict laws for the newcomers and anglophone communities might make the situation worse. It is important to acknowledge that English having the status of a lingua franca is still one of the official languages in Canada. Therefore, the policy makers and legislators in Quebec should consider the long term consequences of the existing laws and bring about necessary amendments.