Quebec will keep its immigration levels at 50,000 for 2024 and 2025, despite calls from business in the province for major increases.
In an immigration plan announced in Quebec City on Wednesday, Premier Francois Legault also revealed new rules requiring some Temporary Foreign Workers to pass a French test to renew their work permits.
« The message will be very clear as much for students as for workers, » Legault said. « In the future, if you want to come to Quebec for more than three years, if you want to be received as a permanent immigrant, you need to speak French. »
Legault’s Coalition Avenir Quebec have been steadfast in sticking to lower immigration levels, despite a chronic labour shortage in the province.
With the federal government pushing ahead with its plan to increase levels, Quebec is entitled to do the same under the 1991 Canada-Quebec Accord.
Quebec Immigration Levels 2024 and 2025
|
2024
|
2025
|
|
|
Economic
|
31,950
|
31,950
|
|
Family
|
10,400
|
10,400
|
|
Refugees
|
7,200
|
7,200
|
|
Others
|
450
|
450
|
|
Total
|
50,000
|
50,000
|
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Legault says his province is unable to integrate higher numbers, he had indicated the number might rise to around the 60,000 mark. Instead, the level of 50,000 was set for 2024 and 2025, with no indication of what might happen after that.
The Premier and his government say too many immigrants who cannot speak French are causing the decline of the language in the province.
« Across the board the indicators are red, » French Language Minister Jean-François Roberge said of language trends in the province.
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« French at work, French at home, consumption of culture and media in French, all of that is in decline. »
Much like the rest of Canada, Quebec is contending with a plummeting birth rate and aging population.
Previously, the CAQ has mirrored the federal government by setting targets three years ahead. Legault said he was no doing so this time around because he wanted to gauge the effect of the current flow of newcomers on the French language in the province.
