I. Introduction
Page 3 of 9
A. Defining the Issues
Immigration is a major issue for demographic balance and the future of linguistic duality throughout the country; over the past 15 years, it has accounted for approximately 50% of Canada’s population growth. In fulfillment of its commitment to promoting linguistic duality, the government needs to consider ways to enable English-speaking and French-speaking communities, and especially the French-speaking communities outside Quebec, to share equitably in the social and demographic benefits of immigration.
Close to 15 years ago, the government of Canada adopted legislation that reaffirms linguistic duality as a fundamental part of the Canadian identity. Part VII of the Official Languages Act of 1988 commits the federal government to taking measures to: a) enhance the vitality of the official language minorities and support their development; and b) foster the full recognition and use of both English and French in Canadian society. More recently in the Speech from the Throne in January 2001, the government stated that “Canada’s linguistic duality is fundamental to our Canadian identity and is a key element of our vibrant society.” Although various initiatives have been adopted to fulfill this commitment, including, for example, the Canada-Quebec Immigration Accord, little attention has been paid to the potential impact on the linguistic minorities of one of the most significant factors affecting the Canadian population in recent decades: immigration. This report explores the impact that immigration may have on the protection and promotion of linguistic duality. More specifically, it examines the influence that immigration may have on the development and vitality of the official language minorities and offers policy recommendations intended to help strengthen their communities.
Since 1867, over 14 million people have immigrated to Canada. Throughout our history, immigrants and their descendants have contributed to the country’s economic growth and social development and helped to shape the Canadian identity. The same is true today. At the beginning of the 21st century, immigration is the single most important factor contributing to the real growth of Canada’s population. Future population growth will increasingly depend upon it (Statistics Canada, March 2001).
Until the 1960s, the vast majority of Canada’s population was of British and/or French descent, with the French-speaking population overwhelmingly concentrated in Quebec and English speakers constituting a large majority in the rest of the country. Already, however, the influx of immigrants from many parts of the world had begun to change the face of Canada.
The Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism (RCBB) observed that the proportion of Canadians of neither British nor French descent had risen from 11% in 1881 to 26% in 1961 and that “other” ethnic groups could eventually constitute a majority of Canadians.
Most new immigrants adopted the English rather than the French language after their arrival in Canada, contributing greatly to the vitality of the Anglophone community. While the RCBB recognized the importance of immigration to the continued growth of the country, its 1969 report noted that this disproportionate growth could lead to a relative decline of the French-speaking community, as a proportion of the whole population. The RCBB made few suggestions, however, for preserving the French fact, especially outside Quebec.
In the decades since the Royal Commission, immigration has continued to revitalize Canadian society, but its impact has continued to be felt predominantly in the English-speaking community. Today, of the nearly five million immigrants who live in Canada, some 3.8 million speak English only, about 180,000 speak only French, and nearly 600,000 speak both official languages. For every new immigrant whose mother tongue is French there are ten whose mother tongue is English.
For this among other reasons, including the declining birth rate among Francophones after 1960, many Canadians are not very optimistic about the evolving situation of the French language. In one survey, about 83% of Francophones said they do not feel that the future of the French language and culture is secure outside Quebec. Some 53% of English speakers shared this view, as did the majority of immigrants (Environics, 2000).
A number of factors influence a community’s demographic vitality, among them fertility, mortality, migration (immigration, emigration and interprovincial migration) and linguistic mobility (the loss of the mother tongue or acquisition of new languages). In his Annual Report 1988, the Commissioner of Official Languages observed that, although Canada depends increasingly on immigration for its demographic growth, policy makers had rarely assessed its impact on the demographic vitality of the country’s official language minorities (Commissioner of Official Languages, 1989).
Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) regularly extols the benefits the country derives from the diverse skills and experience contributed by immigrants. Former Immigration Minister Elinor Caplan has rightly remarked that “immigrants are a vital source of human capital that continues to expand our economy and strengthen our communities” (CIC, November 1999).
Can immigration policy help Canada meet its legislative commitment towards the reinforcement of its linguistic duality and the development and vitality of official language minority communities? This report will assess current immigration initiatives which address this commitment designed to strengthen these communities and the potential for a convergence of objectives in the areas of language and immigration.
How can the government recruit more immigrants to move into linguistic minority communities and help them to establish themselves in those communities? What employment obstacles do such immigrants face? Are there gaps in government services and educational facilities for immigrants? How have the minority communities accommodated new immigrants, and is there more they can do to help immigrants become full participants in the society of their new home? These are among the questions this report attempts to answer.
The wide range of sources employed in this study include federal and provincial government documents (notably from Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the Department of Canadian Heritage), reports generated by official language communities and their representative organizations, research essays relevant to the issues of immigration and official languages, reports of consultations held with immigrants from official language minority communities, polling conducted within the communities, and data culled from the longitudinal immigration database of Citizenship and Immigration Canada and Statistics Canada.
