Quebec is ideating a new immigration program to accelerate Francophone PR

An initiative to expedite the path to PR for those immigrants who speak French has been mooted in Quebec, a province that is continuously working to increase its immigration independence.

The province of Quebec is proposing a new immigration program that would quicken the path to permanent residence (PR) for francophone immigrants currently residing in Quebec before the introduction of its next immigration plan. Quebec would target "graduates from francophone CEGEP schools and universities as well as temporary workers who [have] already resided in the province" as part of this new immigration policy.

Why Quebec's immigrant history is different from Canada's rest?

Knowledge of Quebec's prospective new immigration route necessitates first having a basic understanding of why the province is permitted to design its own immigration policies. The Canada-Quebec Accord has gradually been modified to give Quebec the right to choose all of its own "talented professionals that choose to move" there based on the province's own criteria and procedures, which has resulted in the current reality of immigration to Quebec.

Quebec has continuously pushed for immigration autonomy for its province since establishing its own immigration ministry in 1968, partly because it wants to maintain the dominance of French, Canada's second official language, in the area. This was made very evident when Quebec's minister of immigration, Christine Frechette, expressed her disappointment that Canada has not yet made proficiency in French a requirement for admission to the province.

Frechette stated that "[Quebec] will utilize all the levers at our disposal to obtain the maximum percentage of immigrants who are francophone; this is vital for the viability of French" at the beginning of November 2022. There is now nothing stopping the province from changing its selection criteria and bringing in additional French-speaking economic immigrants, despite the fact that they have not received the necessary level of immigration control from Canada's federal government.

Quebec has also taken measures to enhance and further maintain the range of French in the province, including the enactment of Bill 96. Bill 96, which became law on June 1, 2022, stipulates those newcomers "will only have six months to master the language before they are compelled to receive the majority of government services only in French."

The province is no longer able to request that the Canadian federal government give priority to French-speaking immigrants for permanent residence in Canada because of the above-mentioned intention to have complete control over its own immigration and the existence of the Canada-Quebec Accord. Therefore, in order to achieve the exact objectives, set forth, Quebec's plan for a new immigration program will need to function without assistance from the Canadian government.

The two main objectives of any new immigration policies in Quebec:

The main objective of Quebec's new immigration pathway, as it has always been, is to "keep families, students, and employees in Quebec by offering a speedier lane toward permanent residency." Quebec will use this program to advance the province's goal of protecting and expanding the use of the French language by using this new pathway to expedite the immigration of only francophones.

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