In recent weeks, elected officials have been outraged to discover that the province had welcomed a record number of 346,000 non-permanent residents at the start of 2023. If this figure sends such a shock wave, it is because the government of Quebec hammered home that we have a limited capacity to admit immigrants.
According to him, we should not exceed 50,000 economic immigrants per year. Now, the distortion between this vision and reality could not be greater! The laws of the market are paramount, and to ensure the growth of our businesses – when it is not simply their survival – it has been necessary to turn to temporary immigration.
It is therefore not surprising that Quebec employers have turned to temporary foreign workers (TFWs). They manage to meet some of our pressing labor needs, but this way of working is not a panacea. Companies must manage the high turnover rate of TFWs. Another disadvantage is that there are no incentives to provide training, whereas the acquisition of skills is essential in the new economy. These are barriers to business productivity.
Despite everything, the number of TFWs has grown by 350% since 2019. The filing of Labor Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) applications has also been steadily increasing since the beginning of 2023.
Of course, these people are crucial for our economy, but most of them cannot stay in Quebec. They return to their country of origin, once the work is done, on the pretext that we do not have the capacity to receive them!
It is unfortunate because beyond the numbers, we do not promote real inclusion of our immigrants. We ignore the life project of these people who came here to improve their lot, and ours.
It serves no one that Quebec and Ottawa have such diametrically opposed visions regarding the number of permanent immigrants to welcome. A happy medium would be needed to guarantee the long-term demographic and political weight of Quebec in the federation while being sensitive to the reactions of the host population. Indeed, the high number of immigrants proposed by the federal government could expose us to a backlash, as some European countries have experienced where immigration levels were no longer considered socially acceptable.
Recently, Quebec announced that it wanted to clean up by revising the number of permanent immigrants upwards and reviewing the Quebec Experience Program (PEQ). We can only salute this desire. The reform of the PEQ completed in 2020 had added unnecessary barriers to the eligibility of a program that had nevertheless proven itself in terms of integration and inclusion.
But we will have to go further. Tackling the bureaucracy and the administrative burden would also be welcome, because too many candidates motivated to settle here see their hope dashed due to paperwork and endless delays.
Since Quebec is in competition with the rest of the world to attract the best talent, perfecting our reception capacity, both in the metropolitan area and in the regions, is urgent. We must also protect our language at all costs. As it is illusory to think that 100% of our future arrivals will be fluent in French upon arrival, it is imperative that francization be within everyone’s reach.
Let’s face the facts: we cannot do without immigration, especially with the accelerated aging of our population. But it is up to us to simplify our programs and make Quebec a truly welcoming land for newcomers.
