{"id":207855,"date":"2019-03-31T06:58:57","date_gmt":"2019-03-31T10:58:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=207855"},"modified":"2019-03-31T06:58:57","modified_gmt":"2019-03-31T10:58:57","slug":"new-study-calls-on-quebec-to-restore-annual-immigration-target-to-50000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/03\/31\/new-study-calls-on-quebec-to-restore-annual-immigration-target-to-50000\/","title":{"rendered":"New study calls on Quebec to restore annual immigration target to 50,000"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
In terms of language, the study points to statistics from both Quebec\u2019s Immigration Ministry and the Institute de la statistique du Quebec that show nearly 60 per cent of immigrants admitted to Quebec already speak French or French and English by the time they arrive in the province. (Pixabay Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A new study is calling on Quebec\u2019s government to restore its immigration target of 50,000 newcomers a year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The study by the independent Institut de recherche et d\u2019informations socio-\u00e9conomiques (IRIS) contends that the government\u2019s justification for\u00a0reducing its immigration target<\/a>\u00a0for 2019 to 40,000 \u2014 that too many new arrivals are not integrating into Quebec society \u2014 \u201chas never been established scientifically.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study follows a series of controversial moves by the province\u2019s new Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec (CAQ) government, including its recent effort\u00a0to dismiss<\/a>\u00a0a backlog of just over 18,000 pending\u00a0Quebec Skilled Worker Program<\/a>applications as part of a proposed overhaul of the province\u2019s immigration laws known as\u00a0Bill 9<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Written by researcher Julia Posca, the paper provides a statistical snapshot of indicators including mastery of French, education levels and employment rate to assess the CAQ\u2019s claims that immigrants have been falling short in these areas.<\/p>\n

In terms of language, the study points to statistics from both Quebec\u2019s Immigration Ministry and the Institute de la statistique du Quebec that show nearly 60 per cent of immigrants admitted to Quebec already speak French or French and English by the time they arrive in the province.<\/p>\n

Immigrants to Quebec are also better educated compared to non-immigrants, Posca writes. Among Quebecers aged 25 to 54, 42 per cent of immigrants have a certificate, diploma or university degree compared to 24.9 per cent of Quebec residents who were born in Canada.<\/p>\n

As to employment, Posca said discrepancies persist between immigrants and Canadian-born residents of Quebec, but the gap is narrowing. The employment rate of Quebecers born in Canada was 86.6 per cent in 2018 compared to 78.9 per cent for immigrants, which Posca noted was slightly better than Ontario\u2019s immigrant employment rate of 78.5 per cent.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn summary,\u00a0immigrants in Quebec master French as never before, are highly educated and participate en masse in the labour market,\u201d Posca writes.<\/p>\n

The study also downplayed the government\u2019s claims that too few immigrants to Quebec are retained. Posca points to statistics showing that 82.2 per cent of economic immigrants to Quebec admitted to the province in 2010 were still there five years later.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact is if we compare Quebec to other provinces in Canada we realize that [Quebec] is one of the four provinces where the retention rate is greatest,\u201d Posca told\u00a0CIC News.<\/em>\u00a0\u201cWe realize that provinces that have more immigrants have the best retention rates.\u201d<\/p>\n

The IRIS study points to a 2018 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development study that shows countries that welcome more immigrants are also those where immigrants enjoy better outcomes relative to those born there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is nothing to indicate that accepting fewer immigrants will improve their lot,\u201d it argues.<\/p>\n

The study posits that the main obstacles to integration are in fact issues on the host society\u2019s end such as the recognition for professional credentials and work experience obtained outside Canada and employment discrimination.<\/p>\n

Bill 9, however, does not address either of these concerns, it says.<\/p>\n

The move to reduce immigration at a time when Quebec\u2019s population is ageing and its employers are facing a serious shortage of labour is also questioned, as is what the study calls the CAQ\u2019s\u00a0 \u201cutilitarian\u201d view of immigration as a means to primarily economic ends.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn effect, the government is putting an end to the citizen\u2019s approach to immigration, where immigrants are considered for their social, cultural and economic contributions,\u201d it says.<\/p>\n

The study recommends that Quebec return to its previous admissions target of 50,000 newcomers \u201cas much for human as demographic and economic reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith this level of immigration, the employment rate has been going up. The number of immigrants was not the problem,\u201d Posca told\u00a0CIC News<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cQuebec also has an ageing population, so if we want to address this problem in the future, we should welcome immigrants who are, on average, younger than the population in Quebec,\u201d she added. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t seem like a good idea right now to not host those people who want to have a life project here in Quebec.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study also calls on the government to allocate a \u201csignificant\u201d budget for both governmental and non-governmental organizations in the province that work directly with newcomers to the province in order to meet its stated goal of \u201cefficient and personalized\u201d integration services.<\/p>\n

In response to the study, the government\u00a0stood by its views on immigration and highlighted the fact it was elected on a platform to reform Quebec\u2019s immigration policies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new study is calling on Quebec\u2019s government to restore its immigration target of 50,000 newcomers a year.\u00a0 The study …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":174630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-immigration","mauthors-stephen-smith","mauthors-cic-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207855"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207856,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207855\/revisions\/207856"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}