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15 - A Land of Immigration and Official French–English Bilingualism

Politics and Policies for Integration of Adult Immigrants into French-Canadian Minority Communities

from Part III - The Canadian Context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2019

By
Monika Jezak
Edited by
Thomas Ricento
Thomas Ricento
Affiliation:
University of Calgary
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Summary

In this paper I critically review language policies aiming at the integration of immigrants into French minorities in Canada, and use recent survey data to trace the impact of these policies on adult Francophone immigrants’ integration experiences outside of Quebec. An analysis of the intersections between these language policies and the integration trajectories shows interesting, but also worrying trends which are discussed in this paper. While these policies arguably aim at the maintenance of linguistic status quo, both nationally and locally, through reinforcing the existing balance of power between English and French communities, and through leveling asymmetries in French minority settings, they simultaneously work at facilitating but also impeding immigrant integration; as such, they are at times embraced, and at others resisted on immigrants’ pathways.

Keywords

language policyimmigration policieslinguistic minoritieslanguage practicesQuebecFrench minorities
Type
Chapter
Information
Language Politics and Policies
Perspectives from Canada and the United States
 , pp. 281 - 297
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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