The Legault government is launching an operation to double the number of asylum seekers admitted to Quebec to ease pressure on Montreal’s reception capacity and meet labor needs in the national capital.
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A first bus carrying new migrants arrived in Quebec last week. Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette visited on Tuesday, accompanied by the QMI agency.
Josué Kabongo, a young Congolese asylum seeker, is impressed when Ms. Fréchette stops to chat with him.
“At 21, anything is possible,” said the minister with a smile.
“It’s going well,” agrees Josué. But you have to take your time and make careful decisions.”
Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette met a young Congolese man, Josué Kabongo, during her visit to an asylum seekers’ shelter in Quebec on Tuesday. Photo: Gabriel Côté, QMI Agency
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The young man is part of the first cohort of 12 asylum seekers who have raised their hands to leave Montreal and settle in the national capital as part of a pilot project the government has just launched.
In the coming months there will be 540 doing the same, resulting in the number of asylum seekers admitted to Quebec each year doubling.
Every Wednesday since the beginning of November, a bus from the metropolis has arrived at Rue des Sœurs de la Charité in Old Quebec to leave behind a dozen irregular migrants who will be housed and fed in Quebec’s multi-ethnic center while they wait to be found a place to settle down.
Arrival of a bus with asylum seekers in Quebec, Wednesday, November 22, 2023. Stevens LeBlanc/JOURNAL DE QUEBEC
“We want to help ease some of the pressure on Montreal by encouraging asylum seekers to settle in the region. So we start with Quebec City,” explains Minister Fréchette in an interview.
“And the message we get from the city [de Québec]is that they want immigration of all statuses together, according to their demographic importance […]. We therefore suspected that these could be asylum seekers, among others.”
Incentives
To encourage these people to come to Quebec, the government is also offering them job search assistance and, in the meantime, an emergency allowance of $850 per month and an allowance of $230 per week so that they can take French lessons .
Currently, the government is planning a pot of $15 million for this operation over the next three years.
“It is a project that is very important for the region because it has allowed us to structure all phases of the asylum seekers’ journey,” emphasizes the general director of the Multiethnic Center of Quebec, Natacha Battisti.
Still, she agrees that some things need to be adjusted over time. The agreement requires the center to host migrants for a period of two weeks, when in reality many stay there for up to 12 weeks.
“It’s fun at the moment because I still have rooms available,” she thinks. But I know we need to remember that we will be fed at Christmas.”
Public services under pressure
“We also call on the federal government to distribute asylum seekers across Canada, as Quebec has assumed a very large share of the reception and support of these people.”
“[À Montréal], the resources are utilized to their maximum. It’s tight here too [à Québec], but we work with groups to find places that were not occupied by asylum seekers. So you have to think hard, you have to innovate.”
– Christine Fréchette, Minister of Immigration, Frenchization and Integration.
The food supply mystery
The multi-ethnic center, which already housed 500 asylum seekers before the government project, is making significant efforts to offer migrants food they enjoy. “It’s a way to integrate them more quickly,” Natacha Battisti told Minister Fréchette as she gave her a tour of a shelter center in Old Quebec on Tuesday.
But this task is not always easy. “The problem we see is that they don’t eat the same way we eat. “The foods used are different,” emphasized Ms. Battisti.
Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette with Director General of the Multi-Ethnic Center of Quebec, Natacha Battisti. Photo: Gabriel Côté, QMI Agency
Unfortunately, the center learned this the hard way when the food they purchased “ended up in the trash.” “It was not beneficial financially or in terms of integration because they were still hungry,” the director general told Christine Fréchette.
In particular, some foods, like cauliflower, “don’t work at all.” “Even the fish you really have to size up […]. We thought it would be easier. But no, it’s difficult,” Ms. Battisti added.
But it’s not just a question of taste. “They may have colic, they may have abdominal pain…” she concluded.