Canadian Immigration Policy and National Unity

Migration has long been an issue for many countries, especially non-traditional immigration targets. Homogenous countries have always found it difficult to balance the need for immigrants with their desire to keep their culture pure and exclusive. This has led to many internal and interstate conflicts as the causes for migration – war, epidemics, lack of economic opportunities, lack of human rights, and undemocratic regimes persecuting opponents and minorities -- continue to affect tens of millions around the globe.

Canada has long been a magnet for immigration, and most of its population is composed of immigrants or the descendants of immigrants. Up until recently, immigration has historically been limited to some 250,000 people into Canada per year. This has proven too few to ensure full economic productivity and a solid base with which to fund Canada’s massive social programs that require a large taxation base to function today and survive into the future.

Last year the federal government introduced legislation to increase the annual inflow of immigrants to 500,000 by 2025. Some critics, like the Business Council of Canada, still think that this is too low a number. In its view, with employers across the country unable to fill nearly one million job openings, bolder targets for economic-class admissions are required to tackle ongoing skill and labor shortages.

The federal government’s new immigration quotas are creating a backlash in French speaking Quebec. Its nationalist Premier (provincial Prime Minister) François Legault, a former separatist cabinet minister, argues that such a rapid increase in immigration quotas will make the French population of Canada even more of a minority in their own country.

There is no doubt that the majority of immigrants choose to migrate to English Canada, where the education system prepares them and their children access to education that provides them with the tools to work and compete in English – the language of international business and technology. 

Quebec’s strict language laws force immigrants to send their children to exclusively French language schools that do not prepare them to compete in the global job market and could restrict their ability to function beyond Quebec’s borders.

Indeed, Premier François Legault has said that there is "no question" of Quebec accepting a huge rise in immigration.

"We're different than the rest of North America," Legault has said. "And it's important to protect French in the future to make sure that newcomers speak French, because there will always be a strong incentive for people in Quebec to learn English."

He said his government also opposes the mission of lobby group Century Initiative, which hopes to increase Canada's population to 100 million by 2100.

I agree that Quebecers are concerned with the long-term viability of their language and culture should their presence in Canada be reduced from the current approximately 20% (and currently declining) to a much lower proportion of the Canadian population if in fact this rapid and massive immigration quota is enacted and increase the English-speaking majority by 250%.

While the federal government’s new immigration quotas won’t cause much of a stir in the rest of Canada (other than an extremist anti-immigrant fringe), it may well disturb political equilibrium in Quebec.

The separatist Parti Quebecois has lost much of its luster over the past few years while Legault’s Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) has taken the nationalist mantle without espousing the separatist option. Should Legault fail to move the federal government’s position on immigration, it might revitalize the separatist option. 

Many of Quebec’s younger generation have no use for separatism or restrictive language laws since they see their economic future as competing in English in the global marketplace while maintaining their French identity. Current Quebec laws restrict their ability to achieve an excellent level of English to allow them to be competitive.

Separatism has not been a winning option in Quebec. However, at the very least, how politicians position their arguments against immigration might well determine if Canadians will once again face a destabilizing separatist force in its second largest province.

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Edition: Estefanía Cardeña