Groups helping immigrants, migrant workers, and refugees in Montreal say their clientele will fight for their basic rights to be respected under Quebec’s renewed language law.
Bill 96, the province’s revision of the French-language Charter, was passed Tuesday in the National Assembly. The broad scope of the law limits the use of English in courts and public services, and imposes stricter language requirements on small businesses, municipalities and CEGEP students.
One of the clauses of the law requires newcomers to learn French within six months of arrival, after which they will no longer be able to access most public services in another language.
Community workers say this could make it difficult for their clients to access justice and even do their daily errands, making them more isolated and vulnerable.
They believe Quebec is creating a two-tier immigration system, where people fleeing conflict and speaking only rudimentary English can be discouraged from arriving in the province despite growing labor needs. Meanwhile, the province is relying on a growing number of temporary foreign workers with low-wage jobs to fill significant labor shortages.
“We feel really discriminated against,” said Evelyn Calugay, who runs PINAY, a Filipino women’s rights group.
Filipinos who come to Quebec are often forced into precarious jobs, such as housework, which leaves them little time to learn French, Calugay said. They already come from a country with eight major dialects, he noted.
Calugay, 76, arrived in Quebec in 1975 when the province was desperate for nurses. .
“We learned English in school because it was taken from the American system, so the language was imposed on us, and before that our ancestors were forced to speak Spanish,” Calugay said. The Philippines was a first colony in Spain, then the United States until it gained independence after World War II.
Calugay said he appreciates the importance of preserving the French language and following the laws and customs of Quebec and Canada, but that the renewed language charter now feels coercive, rather than a way to promote French.
“At the moment we don’t even encourage temporary workers to come to Quebec,” he said.
Legault shifts its focus to immigration
Prime Minister François Legault told reporters on Tuesday after the law was passed that he wanted to focus on making sure that more immigrants accepted in the province already speak French, and noted that he would make it more a campaign theme in the next election.
He said his government has increased the proportion of its selection of French-speaking immigrants from 55% to 84%, but that the proportion of French-speaking immigrants accepted into the province by the federal government was only 50 %.
While Quebec handles economic immigration to the province, a power that no other Canadian provinces and territories have, the federal government is responsible for admitting refugees.
Calugay notes that if Quebec’s powers are expanded to include refugees, the province could effectively limit admissions from certain countries based on its French rule, while incorporating more temporary foreign workers, mostly from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras. .
“Because this is cheap, what does a capitalist want? Cheap labor, of course,” he said.
With an Amazon distribution center set to open soon in Montreal, Mostafa Henaway is calling on the government to close the gaps that allow temporary agencies to operate without scrutiny. (Verity Stevenson / CBC)
Mostafa Henaway, of the Migrant Workers Center, agrees with Calugay that the government appears to be prioritizing temporary migrant work in order to appease its voter base.
“There’s this idea that they want a temporary, flexible one-time workforce,” Henaway said in a telephone interview.
“Therefore, the CAQ can say that it reduced permanent migration. Then, at the same time, they can say that they increased the number of temporary migrants and protected the French language.”
He said the six-month clause means that vulnerable workers and immigrants in all sorts of situations could have trouble understanding and making themselves understood when reporting abuse.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has so far rejected Legault’s calls for Quebec to have full control over immigration to the province, but has pointed to the C-13 bill introduced by federal liberals, which in part seeks to increase immigration from countries francophones.
In a statement to CBC News, Jean Boulet, provincial minister responsible for immigration, labor and francization, said that giving priority to French-speaking immigrants is important for Quebec, “given Quebec’s French character and the problems of maintaining official language of Quebec. “
“Temporary workers are essentially the responsibility of the federal government and there is no threshold that limits the arrival of this category of immigration,” Boulet said.
In 2021, about 24,000 temporary foreign workers were employed in Quebec, the highest number so far in the province and more than about 17,000 the previous year. Quebec announced last year that it had signed an agreement with Ottawa for companies in the province to hire up to 20 percent more than that.
When children are translators
For Rose Ndjel, director of Afrique au Féminin in the Parc-Extension neighborhood of Montreal, the challenge of extended language restrictions will be for people who have lived there for years and may not have easy access. to French courses by time and cost. .
Ndjel helps run a local bank of interpreters who speak many of the more than 130 languages in Park Ex, including Spanish, Punjabi, Hindi, Lingala, Urdu and Tamil.
Prior to passing the law, she said a local school board employee contacted her to ask for interpreters to translate teacher meetings to parents.
Rose Ndjel is the director of Africa au Féminin at Parc-Extension, where she says Bill 96 will have a big impact on the community. (Chloe Ranaldi / CBC)
“People who speak French in Parc-Extension are people who moved here from other neighborhoods,” Ndjel said, referring to the growing gentrification of the area.
“Otherwise, it is the children who go to primary and secondary school in French who speak the language.”
He said children sometimes miss school to help translate services, such as in doctor’s offices, for their parents or grandparents.
“This will happen even more with this law,” Ndjel said in French. “Parents can’t do anything without their children. Unfortunately, here we are. Children’s health is at stake.”