Pilot programs aimed at granting permanent status to French-speaking immigrants have not had the expected success. Two years after they were founded by Quebec, two of these immigration fast lanes aimed at attracting favored companions and food factory workers have starving participation rates, according to Le Devoir. A third pilot program to recruit workers, particularly in the field of artificial intelligence, also fails to achieve its goals.
“These are very restrictive programs,” explains Me Laurence Trempe, an attorney at EXEO and a member of the Quebec Association of Immigration Lawyers (AQAADI). In response to the ministry’s call, she had already expressed some reservations about these pilot programs, which were put in place to allow certain immigrants not to lose access to permanent residency while the more restrictive Quebec Experience Program (PEQ) reform leaves them in place had a vacuum.
Launched in March 2021, the pilot program for food processing workers (slaughterhouses, fish factories, etc.) where the need is great should attract 550 people per year. However, in two years, barely 50 applications were submitted and 25 Quebec Selection Certificates (CSQ) were issued under this program.
Created at the same time and with the same goals, according to data from late 2022, the Companion Beneficiary List received just over 200 CSQ requests, less than half of which were issued.
Finally, with a target of 600 people per year, the pilot program in artificial intelligence and information technologies and visual effects received only 869 applications in two years, and 701 CSQs were issued. It should be noted that this two-part program reserves a total of 300 places (out of its annual target of 600) for non-French speakers and that this target was achieved in less than two months for one of the parts, that of communication, technologies, information and visual effects.
Too restrictive?
According to Dimitri Fraeys, vice president for innovation and economic affairs of the Conseil de la Transformation Alimentation du Québec, the low turnout can be explained by the difficulty for some in obtaining an equivalent of a high school diploma, which is however the one of the criteria and by the required experience of 24 months instead of 12 in some provinces. “For example, some workers will ask to be reassigned to New Brunswick, where the delays are shorter before they become permanent,” he explains.
However, some temporary workers have recently met the two-year experience requirement, which the Department of Immigration says could increase the number of applications. The latter says he has already seen an increase in recent months.
Is the requirement to have a Level 7 on the Quebec French Proficiency Scale a barrier? Perhaps, suggests immigration attorney Krishna Gagné, “but perhaps not in the case of favored companions who are generally required to speak French”. She notes that the program, aimed at favored escorts, will no longer attract interest by 2024 because the profession was recently upgraded to a higher category, allowing immigrants who practice it to qualify for the PEQ.
While Liberal MP for Nelligan, Monsef Derraji, called these programs “failures,” his Quebec solidaire colleague, Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, called for a “relaxation” of the criteria.
The Minister for Immigration, Franciscanization and Integration (MIFI), Christine Fréchette, pointed out when studying the academic achievements that there are 550 annual places in each of the programs, but that there are no “goals” involved. She also said that the program must be given time to “make itself known” and that there are no plans to relax the criteria. “When you give a pilot program five years, you have to give the estimated time at the start to assess relevance and impact,” she argued. “For now, the programs remain as they are and when it comes time to analyze them, we’ll see if [convient] to soften. »