This week, it was reported that the party currently leading the polls ahead of the Quebec provincial October election is advocating the expulsion of immigrants who fail to assimilate, which will be judged in part on their knowledge of French.
Let me tell you a story about three French-speaking newcomers to Quebec who had difficulty ‘assimilating.’
My husband was raised in francophone northern Ontario, attended a French school for most of his K-12 education, and spoke French at home with his father. He was the Managing Director of a Montreal-based firm, operating solely in French. And yet, when it came time to switch his out-of-province driver’s license for a Quebec one, he was met with nothing but resistance.
Finally, in desperation, he pleaded to the clerk, using all the québecois he had, to accept his documentation and transfer the license. It was only when he spoke this way that his request was granted. He still bristles about this encounter.
Though I didn’t grow up in a French-speaking home, my French background was extensive: five years in school, a French minor in college, multiple visits to France to brush up my vocabulary, translating and writing about news in North Africa for work. But given my husband’s experience, I didn’t feel comfortable conducting official business in the language.
I tried to sign up for a library card at la Grande Bibliotheque, in English. The clerk spent 15 minutes poring over my documentation, finally honing in on a reason to deny me a card. She found it: in one of the documents, my first name was misspelled by one letter. I protested in French, but to no avail. The damage had been done, and the decision had been made.
I would never attempt to sign up for a library card again.
One of my husband’s former employees was a Moroccan immigrant, who had flawless French and technical expertise to boot. But, while working in the Gaspé peninsula, he was repeatedly made to feel like an ‘other,’ culminating in one woman furiously stopping him in the grocery store and demanding that he return to his country.
We all spoke French fluidly. We all had trouble assimilating. Knowledge of the French language is not the issue.
Integration works two ways. Immigrants have to be willing and make the effort to accept their new culture and adopt new ways of living. But communities also have to be willing to accept these new faces, these new accents, and welcome those who have newly arrived. In our experiences, the latter part is where the compact breaks down.
What can be done to improve this situation? The very least political parties should do is to stop harping about immigrants who don’t assimilate, which only encourages voters to see immigrants as a problem and not as an opportunity to present Quebec as a vibrant, inclusive society.
Quebec politicians can be leaders in creating a space where French-speaking individuals can excel, no matter their race, origin, or accent. They should take this opportunity, instead of pandering to a part of the electorate who define a ‘Québécois’ as someone whose French is as pure as lamb’s wool.
As for us, we’re in the process of moving to Paris. So far, nobody has had any trouble understanding our French.
Let me tell you a story about three French-speaking newcomers to Quebec who had difficulty ‘assimilating.’
My husband was raised in francophone northern Ontario, attended a French school for most of his K-12 education, and spoke French at home with his father. He was the Managing Director of a Montreal-based firm, operating solely in French. And yet, when it came time to switch his out-of-province driver’s license for a Quebec one, he was met with nothing but resistance.
Finally, in desperation, he pleaded to the clerk, using all the québecois he had, to accept his documentation and transfer the license. It was only when he spoke this way that his request was granted. He still bristles about this encounter.
Though I didn’t grow up in a French-speaking home, my French background was extensive: five years in school, a French minor in college, multiple visits to France to brush up my vocabulary, translating and writing about news in North Africa for work. But given my husband’s experience, I didn’t feel comfortable conducting official business in the language.
I tried to sign up for a library card at la Grande Bibliotheque, in English. The clerk spent 15 minutes poring over my documentation, finally honing in on a reason to deny me a card. She found it: in one of the documents, my first name was misspelled by one letter. I protested in French, but to no avail. The damage had been done, and the decision had been made.
I would never attempt to sign up for a library card again.
One of my husband’s former employees was a Moroccan immigrant, who had flawless French and technical expertise to boot. But, while working in the Gaspé peninsula, he was repeatedly made to feel like an ‘other,’ culminating in one woman furiously stopping him in the grocery store and demanding that he return to his country.
We all spoke French fluidly. We all had trouble assimilating. Knowledge of the French language is not the issue.
Integration works two ways. Immigrants have to be willing and make the effort to accept their new culture and adopt new ways of living. But communities also have to be willing to accept these new faces, these new accents, and welcome those who have newly arrived. In our experiences, the latter part is where the compact breaks down.
What can be done to improve this situation? The very least political parties should do is to stop harping about immigrants who don’t assimilate, which only encourages voters to see immigrants as a problem and not as an opportunity to present Quebec as a vibrant, inclusive society.
Quebec politicians can be leaders in creating a space where French-speaking individuals can excel, no matter their race, origin, or accent. They should take this opportunity, instead of pandering to a part of the electorate who define a ‘Québécois’ as someone whose French is as pure as lamb’s wool.
As for us, we’re in the process of moving to Paris. So far, nobody has had any trouble understanding our French.
