This will take more than one year; it takes time to build the future. However, the objective is clear: we must seek to improve our understanding and acknowledgement of each other. And this must be reciprocal. Affirming who we are, which is fundamental for us, will make it easier to explain our priorities, visions and plans. This identity, our identity, no longer needs to be nourished by resentment or fear of others.
Instead, it must be built on trust in ourselves and in our desire to live together. Our identity has matured and affirmed its nature. First as French Canadians and later as Quebecers, we used to define ourselves by opposition to English Canadians or other Canadians. What we are is a reflection of the plurality of our ways of belonging, our distinct way of belonging to Quebec and our shared sense of belonging to Canada.
Passer au contenu. English Nous joindre. Introduction The Policy unveiled two weeks ago had the subtitle: Quebecers, our way of being Canadian. It expresses a plurality of ways of belonging that characterizes our identity. We must find it again and make it part of our future. Recognition must be granted again and returned to its rightful place in our joint project.
The Policy The Policy states, first, what we are. It also offers a way to renew the relationship with the Aboriginal peoples. This is a major challenge, but also an exciting human project. A Multiple-Step Pocess We have to recognize that we are at the start of a long journey. We must resume the discussion about the future of the Federation. Footnote 7. The difference in the size of the mother-tongue as compared to the FOLS group within the ESC has been growing since and is the result of the combined effect of the departure of native English speakers to other provinces and the increased immigration of persons with an "other" mother tongue for whom English is the first official language.
For the period from to alone, English mother-tongue speakers increased by only 16, compared to the number of allophones, which grew by 76, Footnote 8. Apart from significant changes in demographic history, the ESC s are also marked by wide variances in terms of distribution and concentration from region to another. Footnote 9. Often thought to be monolithic, the ESC s are now described as "multiple communities that are diverse, multicultural and multiracial.
Footnote 11 Traditionally, immigration from Europe constituted a source of growth for the community, and evidence of this ancestry is still very present in the regional communities of the province.
Quebec's ESC s differ from one another not only in terms of composition, but also in terms of circumstance. On the one hand, those on the Mainland outside Greater Montreal face differing degrees of economic and demographic loss, which is further aggravated by conditions in remote regions such as the Lower North Shore and the North Shore.
On the other hand, in Montreal where ESC s benefit from a more solid socio-economic base, they are attempting to respond to the evolving challenge created by a highly heterogeneous, multi-racial and multi-ethnic constituency. Footnote From until the decrease tapered off in , there was a total net loss of more than , persons, which included immigrants who spoke English only upon arrival in Quebec. This shift reflected a sizeable net migration to other provinces and territories particularly Ontario, and mainly during the s and a drop in the birth rate below replacement levels.
This retention rate for Quebec's mother-tongue English speakers that is, the proportion residing in the province of birth at the time of the census is atypical when compared with other Canadian populations, including French-speaking minorities outside the province.
In addition, those who had higher educational credentials showed a higher tendency to depart than do those with lower educational status. Furthermore, cohort analysis suggests that those who remained in Quebec had a higher jobless rate 8. Footnote 16 As noted by Floch and Pocock, this exodus within the community is resulting in the development of a "missing middle" phenomenon; in other words, an over representation of those who are older and well integrated into the workforce at one end of the socio-economic spectrum and of those who are younger and less educated at the other.
Another characteristic of the ESC s, which testifies to the desire to participate fully in Quebec society, is the rise in the level of bilingualism in the last few decades. Variances also occur across regions and seem to be correlated to the concentration of English speakers within the majority population in that communities with a smaller share of English speakers tend to exhibit a higher rate of bilingualism for example, In addition, bilingualism rates differ across age categories with those aged 50 and older having less competency in French than other groups and those under age 24 According to findings from the General Social Survey Statistic Canada, , which assessed the sense of belonging of Canadians to their local town, province of residence and to Canada as a whole, Quebec English speakers, based on mother tongue, showed a higher attachment to Canada than French-speaking Quebeckers A subsequent Decima-PCH on Montreal produced similar results, which reflect the high level of diversity within this population of English FOLS and the tendency for non-native Quebecers to retain identification with their place of origin.
Economic status also affects an official-language minority communities OLMC's vitality, and dominant features of this dimension Footnote 21 are related to education levels, employment, and income. Despite a high degree of educational attainment and bilingualism, the ESCs have suffered a loss in socio-economic status by virtue of the substantial changes the population has undergone in the last 40 years: Footnote Outside Quebec, this difference between the minority and the majority has been steadily decreasing, whereas within the province, the opposite trend has been occurring.
Compared to other OLMC's in Canada, this linguistic minority now ranks second only to the French-speaking minority in New Brunswick with respect to having higher unemployment than the surrounding majority. A McGill University study on the Black population in Montreal points to the fact that differences in ESC unemployment rates are not only geographical, but also specific to population sub-groups.
The figures on income have engendered much debate in the media in Quebec, pointing to the fact that fallacies about the economic position of the ESC s still persist. Regardless of the measure used, the research shows that the gap that once existed between the incomes of the English FOLS and the French-speaking majority has been significantly diminished. Factors, such the outmigration of FOLS , the influx of international immigrants, and the "falling demand for English-language labour" Footnote 30 have had a determining effect on income levels within the community.
One of the key socio-economic concerns of the ESC s is outmigration, which manifests itself as a loss of human capital, especially "the best and the brightest. Footnote 31 Although the Census data indicate that the exodus of better-educated English speakers was less pronounced, those aged 25 to 29 - a group likely to exhibit high levels of bilingualism - nevertheless had a net decrease of 1, individuals.
There has long been a perception within the ESC that increased bilingualism would improve employment opportunities and therefore have a concomitant effect on retention rates, especially among youth; however, to date, the evidence does not seem to support this correlation. Despite the expectation that greater French-language competency leads to greater success in the job market, ESC bilinguals as well as those who are unilingual have lower income levels than French-speaking bilinguals.
On the subject of bilingualism, there are "no recognized norms" to which English-speaking learners of French as a second language can refer in determining the level of proficiency needed to improve their job prospects in Quebec. At a QCGN consultation of youth, the majority of the participants expressed a desire to remain in the province, but also acknowledged the attraction of the "west", explaining that "outside Quebec any ability to speak French is a competitive advantage.
In recent years, community-driven research has identified a number of strategies to mitigate the higher rates of unemployment and low income within the ESC s. As noted in Quebec Community Groups Network QCGN research findings, "barriers to entry and mobility within the workforce form the basis of exclusion from resources that are crucial to the vitality of the community in every sector. On the education front, one of the priorities identified to help ESC s better access jobs in Quebec is to strengthen French-language training, particularly in terms of the teaching of writing skills, to a level that would enhance the employability of English speakers in a predominantly French-speaking milieu.
In a report for the QCGN, Qu'Anglo Communications suggests the need for "greater collaboration between education leaders and economic development leaders" so that initiatives can be designed to reinforce the link between second-language training and labour market requirements.
Footnote 38 The QCGN has also proposed the establishment of "a culture of life-long learning to improve upon the perceived failings in the language competency of Anglophones that would include actions, such as increased core second-language instruction both at the secondary and post-secondary levels; and promoting work assignments in French-language private and public settings.
Footnote 40 To help support the growth of this sector, the QCGN has suggested that efforts be undertaken at the regional level to "create economic development, educational and private sector networks to encourage recruitment in the technical and vocational field.
As to employment in the public services, the QCGN has advocated a number of remedies to redress the under representation of the ESC in this sector, including the "explicit designation of English-speaking individuals as a beneficiary group. While the federal government does not consider members of the ESC to be an equity group in terms of hiring, it is obliged under the Official Languages Act to ensure that the composition of the public service reflects the proportion of OLMC's in the Canadian population.
Faced with the likelihood of a major human resource shortage in the future, it has identified renewal of the public service to be a key priority and committed itself to "targeted and coordinated recruitment" that is diverse and representative Clerk of the Privy Council, Just as demographic and economic factors influence the vitality of official-language minority communities OLMCs in Canada, so does the political and legal dimension engendered by language legislation, political representation, institutional strength and access to government services.
At the federal level, the constitutional and legislative guarantees that protect acquired language rights derive from the Constitution Act of with its Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act in particular, the amended Part V11 as well as court decisions. The Official Languages Act , adopted in and later augmented in and , clarifies the rights and obligations created by the Charter for the federal jurisdiction: it sets out language policy in the public service, affirms the right of OLMCs to receive government services in their language where numbers warrant, and through its amendment, obliges federal departments to take "positive measures" to support OLMC development and vitality.
In addition to these instruments, the federal government also has a suite of policies, directives and programs at its disposal to support these rights. Enacted on August 26, , it represented the culmination of a series of language laws passed by the province during the Quiet Revolution, the goal of which was to promote the use of French in Quebec and assimilate immigrants into the mainstream population.
We are not going to and should not be asked to disappear or to deny our material contribution to the economy, culture and feel of Montreal and Quebec. But the devices being discussed so far have the distinct character of suppression of the English language and the English-speaking community. Rather, they would suppress English at the cost of the civil liberties of all Quebecers and would lead to the serious reduction in services available in English to our community.
As the debate about the status of the French language in Montreal and Quebec heats up, the proposition that French is in peril or in decline seems to be an article of faith among the political class. Contradicting this orthodoxy is treated as proof of not belonging in the new Quebec and subject to serious time in the penalty box. The demographic data show that language use is changing.
It is transitioning toward a more diverse profile that reflects how Quebec, Canada and the world are going to evolve. Immigration trends entirely the byproduct of active government policy in immigrant recruitment have produced a more cosmopolitan atmosphere. But anyone living here in this century who asserts that French is in decline is not remembering the Montreal of or accurately.
The opposition in the National Assembly, the Liberal federal government , a gang of former premiers , commentators by the dozen, are all singing in chorus. The proposals being advocated are being discussed in the context of the narrative that French is in danger, with political pressure mounting on governments to act. Systemic socioeconomic inequalities between minorities and mainstream populations are solidifying mainstream populations are solidifying and will be, as time goes by, very difficult to resolve.
Admittedly, Quebec is not unique, Other advanced capitalist countries also experience immigration from the Third World countries, but almost thirteen percent of Quebec's population were born outside the province. By comparison, immigrants make up only about six percent of France's population, eight percent of West Germany's, and six percent of the USA's. Historically, Quebec was but a land of passage for many immigrants; they would head to other parts of Canada, mainly Ontario, or the United States.
Today, nearly three in four immigrants settle in Quebec permanently or at least for an extended period. The democratic framework of their polity makes them more open in theory, but the visceral mindset often finds its way to the surface. Jacques Parizeau's declaration best exemplifies this. It constantly oscillates between a laudable democratic impulse - which longs for sociopolitical inclusiveness and an en-larged citizenship - and the fear of losing parts of the historical identity, f seeing the imagined community fall into political irrelevance.
This ambivalence is entrenched in the whole set of policies devised by successive Quebec governments over the years with regard to the insertion of immigrants and the so-called "cultural communities" into Quebec society.
Throughout the late s and the s, other legislation and policies aimed at defining the conditions of immigration and the criteria of intercultural living in Quebec recognized the existence of so-called cultural communist. In everyday life, this dichtomization may not be experienced by individuals in a conscious way, but in the public sphere it has created implicit boundaries along ethnic, cultural, and even racial lines. Speaking French does not buy a membership into the imagined community.
At one point, the main character laments:. I don't belong to the We so often used here - Us, "Nous autres" - the others,"Vous autres. Inecorable strangeness Other, apart, quarantined Quebec cultural and immigration policies are the products of a fundamentally contradictory and ambiguous approach while the state pretends to include, it excludes by pigeonholding people into ethnocutural categories outside which their existence seems unjustified.
In fact, such policies proceed from an inrrevocable tendency to typecast ehthnocultural communities into static socioeconomic roles. While intercultural and interethnic relations in Quebec have not yet had disproportionate consequences, the potential for damaging, irremediable conflicts is real. The armed standoff of the summer of between the Canadian army and Mohawk Indians as Oka, just outside of Montreal, stands as a reminder of the fragility of pluriethnicity and pluriculturalism in Quebec.
Although pessimism is a poor advisor, one may legitimately wonder if there is a truly satisfying solution of Quebec's multicultural predicament. If anything, heterogeneity has become a permanent fixture of Quebec's socio-political landscape. The problem posed by multicultural coexistence may in fact only continue to fester in that Canadian province. The liberal paradigm which underlies the political framework is incapable of adequately the issue of plurality.
On the one hand, liberal political thought glorified subjective and individual identities underlying ethnocultural differences; on the other, it actualizes itself in political systems which emphasize formal equality and identical treatment of individuals and communities. It celebrates diversity but calls for the homogenizing fusion of all identities into one neutral system of government. Liberation is steeped in a highly contradictory political stance which in fact only complicates the management of ethnocultural diversity.
This is not unique to Quebec, but the Quebec situation may increasingly bear witness to the sociopolitical inefficacy of liberalism. Indeed, it implies the eventual negation of all other cultural expressions in the public place. As such, it is painfully ad odds with the growing and irreversible heterogeneity of the current social fabric of modern Quebec.
Unless a new ethics of interncommunal relations is developed, the construction of a truly open and accepting multicultural society in Quebec is nowhere near realization.
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