Immigrants are no strangers to being called bogeymen
On the infrequent occasions when my ethnic background comes up in conversation, I like to say I am a “technical immigrant.”
That’s because, technically speaking, I am an immigrant.
But having arrived in Quebec from my birth country of Egypt when I was only two years old, it would be disingenuous of me to suggest being an immigrant has much, if any, bearing on my day-to-day life. I am essentially illiterate when it comes to Egyptian culture and politics, my fluency in Arabic is strictly break-in-case-of-emergency, and I have visited my homeland exactly once in the past 40 years. What I have tried to do during the decades I’ve been here, with the blessing and encouragement of my parents, has been to fully embrace being a Quebecer. Now that I have young children of my own, that’s my hope for them, too.
It hasn’t always been easy, but I’m not one to complain about whatever minor challenges I’ve encountered — especially when I consider the sacrifices my parents made to even give me this chance: leaving the only country they’d ever known to come, as adults, to a place where they knew no one, did not speak the language(s) and choosing to reboot their lives and careers, all in the hopes of building a better and more prosperous life for me and my brothers. They worked their bums off to do that, and as much as I hate it when people say sappy stuff like this, they are the biggest heroes I will ever have.
But why am I bringing up all of this personal history now? Because after having spent a few days considering recent comments on Quebec and its immigration policies by Parti Québécois leadership candidate — and, according to recent polls, one of the front-runners — JeanFrançois Lisée, I can’t help but wonder if future iterations of my parents and me would have the same wonderful opportunity should Lisée ever find himself occupying the premier’s quarters in Quebec City.
In case you missed it, Lisée doubled down on the identity politics he’s been hoping to ride all the way to the top job in the PQ — the party will vote for its new leader this week and announce the winner Friday — by throwing a little immigrantbaiting into the mix, suggesting not only Quebec should lower the number of immigrants it takes in every year, but it should also target a certain kind of immigrant: one who already speaks French and who can quickly jump into Quebec’s labour market, citing as examples the type of immigrants recruited at Quebec job fairs abroad in cities such as Paris, Brussels and Barcelona. These, Lisée opined, would be “perfect” immigrants to Quebec.
The unsaid but, nonetheless, implicit message in that assertion is that those who don’t meet those criteria are, or should be, regarded as less desirable, as they would require more effort and resources to integrate them into Quebec society. Those resources, it’s worth noting, are already often criticized for being insufficient and ineffective. If the province, under a Lisée-led PQ government, pivots on immigration to focus heavily on cameraready Quebecers, then it would not be any kind of stretch to envision those resources being gutted even further, which would make it even more challenging for “imperfect” immigrants to settle here. The viciousness of that particular circle is fairly evident.
Lisée’s sortie on immigration was disappointing, but sadly not surprising. As my colleague Don Macpherson wisely pointed out in a column last week, many people — and I will sheepishly include myself in that group — have wrongly asserted the PQ’s weapons-grade identity play, its proposed “charter of values,” led directly to the party’s implosion in the 2014 provincial elections. In fact, as Macpherson said, the Charter was one of the PQ’s most popular policy planks — particularly among the older francophone Quebecers who remain the party’s most ardent supporters. Viewed in the prism of political strategy by Lisée, especially in a race to be decided exclusively by current PQ members, it’s depressingly defensible, if obvious and cynical.
Immigrants are no strangers to being intermittent scapegoats or bogeymen. We seem to be in the midst of one of those moments, with Lisée’s recent remarks about immigration and his earlier trial balloons about banning some traditional Muslim religious garb, Conservative Party of Canada MP and leadership hopeful Kellie Leitch’s public musings about imposing a “values test” for prospective immigrants and refugees, the anti-immigrant sentiment that fuelled the Brexit vote in the U.K. this summer, and, several notches down the cuckoo scale, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s election pledges to build a literal wall to keep Mexicans out of the United States, and a metaphorical one to block Muslims.
To Lisée — if he actually believes his own rhetoric and isn’t just employing it shamelessly in an increasingly divisive stab at leading the PQ — and likeminded supporters, my parents and I, and the many thousands like us who have sought, or are seeking, a new home in Quebec, will never be the “right” kind of immigrant, let alone “perfect.”
It would flippant for me to say that, considering the source, I take that as a badge honour. In reality, I worry if this troubling mindset is not sufficiently challenged or if it gains significant traction, the already complex reality of immigrating to this province could become even more daunting for those prospective Quebecers who don’t fit Lisée’s ideals.
Immigrants are no strangers to being intermittent scapegoats or bogeymen. We seem to be in the midst of one of those moments.