Canada’s bilingual language barrier
Ottawa is trying to attract francophones to reverse a declining demographic — but is it working?
As soon as Nawel Maaref landed at Vancouver International Airport, the new immigrant got a hint that Canada wasn’t as bilingual as she had thought.
It took the French-speaking Tunisian native 20 minutes to find a bilingual border officer who could help process her permanent resident papers.
A few days later, when she went to a Service Canada office for her social insurance number, she was sent home and asked to return only if she had a document translated into English.
“We knew that we were coming to an English province that speaks English mostly,” said Maaref, 36, a former banker who immigrated last July with her architect husband, Mohamed Amine Ben Said. “But we were convinced that Canada was generally bilingual and we could survive by speaking French. “It isn’t the case.”
The relative population of French-speaking Canadians has shrunk significantly outside Quebec as a result of decades of assimilation, and an immigration system that had been more successful in attracting English-speaking migrants.
According to the latest census, more than eight million or 22 per cent Canadians identified French as their first official language spoken, and 6.6 million or 18 per cent said they were bilingual in English and French.
However, the francophone population outside Quebec has declined since 1971 from 6.1 per cent of the Canadian population outside the province to just 3.5 per cent today, threatening the country’s bilingual national identity. The Liberal government has been trying to reverse this decline through immigration — and is starting to see results.
The first federal Official Languages Act was adopted in 1969 to ensure respect for English and French as the official languages of Canada. The statute requires all federal institutions to provide services in English or French on request. Its principles were incorporated into the Canadian Constitution.
Outside Quebec and New Brunswick, each province had a francophone share of its population that was less than five per cent. A larger proportion claims to speak English and French, long seen as a tenet of national unity.
“Canada immigration has been mostly in English and benefited the general population more than the francophone minority population,” lamented Alain Dupuis, executive director of the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada, which has a mandate to promote French outside Quebec and ensure that francophones’ rights are respected.
“Our demographic weight has gone down and that’s obviously something of concern.”
But recent federal immigration policy changes are slowly making a difference and have given him some hope of reversing the trend.
For years, Ottawa had tried to bring up the level of francophone newcomers outside Quebec to 4.4 per cent of annual new immigrant population, with no success, said Dupuis, because the immigration system was not “tooled” to attract French-speaking immigrants to the rest of Canada. The current government has made this a priority.
Whether the federal government was motivated by the intent to preserve bilingualism or political pragmatism, the target was finally met in 2022. Last year, it reached 4.7 per cent; Cameroon, Morocco, Algeria, France and Ivory Coast were among the top source countries.
The francophone immigration growth outside Quebec can be attributed to targeted recruitment efforts in France and Morocco and the marketing of 14 welcoming francophone communities across Canada, as well as a new program that allows employers to bring in French-speaking foreign workers and the prioritization of francophone migrants for permanent residence.
Now, Immigration Minister Marc Miller appears determined to set the bar even higher, to six per cent this year, seven per cent in 2025 and eight per cent in 2026, when 36,000 French-speaking are expected to settle outside Quebec.
“Francophone immigration plays a crucial role in strengthening our national identity,” Miller said at the launch of Canada’s new francophone immigration policy in January.
“Our efforts to ensure the successful reception and integration of French-speaking newcomers support our unwavering commitment to restoring and increasing the demographic weight of francophone minority communities.”
Dupuis also credits the additional government investments in support services for francophone immigrants outside Quebec, which have seen the number of French settlement agencies doubling to 80 in five years.
“We have two official languages and we should ensure that there is a bilingual capacity in all provinces, not just in Quebec,” said Dupuis.
Inside one ‘welcoming’ community
Located in western Nova Scotia, Clare is the only municipality in the province that offers services in both official languages, including instant translation at council meetings. The majority of the 7,700 residents are Acadians, descendants of French settlers. Home to Frenchlanguage Université Sainte-Anne, it’s designated as a welcoming francophone community.
The other designated communities are: Évangéline, P.E.I.; HautSaint-Jean, N.B.; Labrador CityWabush, N.L.; Seine River, Man.; Moose Jaw-Gravelbourg, Sask.; Calgary; Prince George, B.C.; Yellowknife, N.W.T.; Whitehorse, Yukon; Iqaluit, Nunavut; as well as Ontario’s Hamilton, Hawkesbury and Sudbury.
Natalie Robichaud, executive director of the Acadian Society of Clare, said francophone minorities surrounded by anglophone communities face challenges. Even though the Official Languages Act gives French equal status in Canada, she said bilingualism doesn’t necessarily translate into reality.
“We try to attract French immigration, but then guess what? You have to speak English to live here,” said Robichaud.
“If you want to get your driver’s licence, if you need to go to Tim Hortons, if you need to go to the hospital, there’s no guarantee you’re going to get services in French. I switch to English and French over 20,000 times a day. But if you don’t speak English, it’s very hard to live here.”
However, amid an aging population and challenges in meeting labour needs, francophone immigration offers a partial solution for these pockets of French communities.
Clare, said Pam Doucet, the municipality’s community development director, can welcome these newcomers with its French services in health care, education and other aspects of life, including a local radio channel. There are plenty of jobs in health care, manufacturing, fisheries, the university and tourism.
Francophone immigrants share diverse backgrounds and in recent years, many have come from Africa and the Middle East, but Doucet believes the common language can help preserve Clare’s linguistic heritage if not the Acadian culture.
“Even though we live in this small community, we’re part of a big, huge world,” she said. “They eat differently. They speak differently. Sometimes they have different religions, different values. But I think we can all learn to respect each other and still live cohesively in the same community and we can still preserve our own culture.”
Designated a welcoming francophone community since 2020, Clare has doubled up its visitor centre as an immigrant welcome centre, built an outdoor rink that offers skating lessons to newcomers, organized community dinners to showcase cuisines and cultures, and hosted weekly English conversation circles to give francophone newcomers an opportunity to practise English.
The programs are meant to make francophone immigrants feel welcomed and supported, said Doucet. The francophone immigration strategy is pointless if newcomers don’t stay, she added.
Why not Quebec?
Quebec immigration lawyer Maxime Lapointe suspects a good number of francophone immigrants are opting for an English-speaking province because Premier François Legault’s CAQ government has reduced the immigrant level to Quebec, causing backlogs. He suspects some will end up heading to Quebec ultimately.
While the 19,633 new permanent French-speaking newcomers settling outside of Quebec in 2023 were just a fraction of the province’s 52,500 overall intake, Lapointe said the Legault government needs to be concerned if the trend continues.
“It’s now way easier for a francophone immigrant to come to Canada outside of Quebec than in Quebec. To me, it’s a shame,” said Lapointe, who believes the federal government is politically motivated by the need to maintain bilingualism outside Quebec, “so they can say to Quebec that they do their work to welcome francophones.”
In January, B.C. became the last province to adopt an official policy on French language services — a move welcomed by the province’s 328,000-strong French-speaking community, of which 30 per cent are francophone immigrants.
The B.C. government said the enrolments in French immersion education and the French school board in the province have increased respectively by seven per cent and 23.6 per cent in the last decade.
That’s music to the ears of Emmanuelle Corne Bertrand, executive director of the Fédération des francophones de la Colombie-Britannique, herself an immigrant from France.
While it’s important for her two young children to be raised in French language and culture, she and her family were drawn by B.C.’s spectacular natural landscape and its linguistic and cultural diversity.
“I’ve always spoken to my kids in French. And French is the language of my heart. It’s how I express my feelings the best and speak my mind easily in French,” said Corne Bertrand.
“I want them to speak French as well as I do, but we are also Canadians. I want them to understand the bilingual Canada.”
Maaref, the newcomer from Tunisia, said she’s missing French a great deal, but thanks to her job at an insurance company, she gets to speak French outside home, with colleagues on her bilingual team.
“Ever since I was a little child, I was speaking French frequently,” said the 36-year-old, who also speaks Arabic.
“I’m happy when I hear people speaking French on the street in Vancouver. I feel I can communicate with them and explain how I feel. When I communicate in French, I can be funny and tell jokes.”
Maaref said there’s still a steep learning curve for her to grow her confidence in English, but so far her experience in Vancouver is much more enjoyable than her friends’ in Quebec.
“I really love the fact that we chose B.C.,” said Maaref, with a smile. “People from North Africa have the sun all year long and it’s hard for them to adapt to having that much snow in Quebec.”
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We try to attract French immigration, but then guess what? You have to speak English to live here.
NATALIE ROBICHAUD, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE ACADIAN SOCIETY OF CLARE, N.S.
However, the
francophone population outside Quebec has declined since 1971 from 6.1 per cent of the Canadian population outside the province to just 3.5 per cent today, threatening the country’s bilingual national identity