ANOTHER COLOSSAL WASTE OF MONEY

Prof. blasts federal plan to recruit francophone immigrants

Newcomers end up speaking English

Kate Jaimet, CanWest News Service

Published: Tuesday, December 18, 2007

OTTAWA -- The federal government is pursuing an "irresponsible" policy of recruiting francophone immigrants to minority French communities in English Canada, when it should be sending them instead to the more robust francophone regions of Quebec, New Brunswick, and eastern Ontario, a University of Ottawa professor argues in a forthcoming journal article.
In "The contribution of immigration to francophone populations outside Quebec," to be published in the journal Francophonies d'Amerique, adjunct professor Charles Castonguay argues a large proportion of francophone immigrants become anglicized when they move to small French communities in Canada, and end up bolstering the English-speaking population rather than the French-speaking minority.
"It's a stupid program," Mr. Castonguay said in an interview. "We're wasting our bloody money here, because we're actually recruiting anglophones."
But Commissioner of Official Languages Graham Fraser defended the immigration policy. "I think it's absolutely critical for the future of French-speaking minority communities across Canada that they have access to immigration, to a stream of newcomers," Mr. Fraser said.
Francophonies d'Amerique, a journal published by the University of Ottawa, will print Castonguay's article in January -- the same month former New Brunswick premier Bernard Lord gives his recommendations to Prime Minister Stephen Harper on minority language policy.
Immigration has been a component of language policy at least since 2001, when Parliament passed the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, identifying one of the objectives of immigration as: "to support and assist the development of minority official languages communities in Canada."
In 2003, then-intergovernmental affairs minister Stephane Dion dedicated $9-million over five years toward recruiting immigrants to minority-language communities. And in September, 2006, the Conservative government furthered the policy by launching their "Strategic Plan to Foster Immigration to Francophone Minority Communities."
The target was to attract between 8,000 and 10,000 French-speaking immigrants annually to francophone communities outside Quebec.
Perhaps as a measure of the success of these programs, the census results show the number of francophone immigrants settling outside Quebec rose to 9,350 between 2001 and 2006 from 7,500 between 1996 and 2001.
But Mr. Castonguay says his analysis shows that within about 20 years of immigrating to Canada, a large proportion of francophones outside Quebec adopt English as their primary language. "We're not really helping the French minorities by recruiting international immigrants to go to places where they're going to assimilate (to English) anyways," he said.
In his article, Mr. Castonguay used data from the 2001 census to look at the language most commonly used at home by francophone immigrants aged 45 to 54.
Reasoning that most immigrants arrive at about age 30, this age bracket would identify their switch in language after 15 to 25 years in Canada, Mr. Castonguay said.
He found in six provinces -- Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and B.C. -- more than 50% of francophone immigrants in that age bracket spoke mainly English at home.
The rate stood at 43% in P.E.I., 46% in Manitoba, and 20% in New Brunswick.
Equivalent data from the 2006 census are not yet available, but a report by Statistics Canada on Dec. 11 found the percentage of people outside Quebec who use French as their main home language declined to 2.5% in 2006, from 2.7% in 2001 -- continuing a downward trend that has existed since 1971.
Based on his results, Mr. Castonguay argues the federal government should redirect its immigration program to steer francophone immigrants toward Quebec, New Brunswick, and Eastern Ontario, where anglicization rates are lower and they have a better chance of both retaining their own language, and augmenting the French-speaking community.
Ottawa Citizen