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The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has achieved its target for admitting Francophone immigrants for the year 2022. In its “Meeting our Objectives: Francophone Immigration Strategy” publication in 2019, the IRCC had set the goal of 4.4% French-speaking immigrants outside/de Quebec by 2023. On January 2023, Canada’s immigration minister Sean Fraser announced that this target had been achieved in 2022 itself.
The number of Francophone immigrants admitted by Canada in the year 2022 was the highest since 2006. In 2006, the number of Francophone residents outside Quebec was just above 2800, which means 1.38% of the immigrants. But in 2022, over 16300 new French-speaking immigrants settled in Canada, which means an increase of 3.02%. This is also the largest number of French-speaking immigrants outside Quebec ever recorded.
The number French-speaking permanent residents has also increased by 42470 permanent residents over the past five years. It means the country has welcomed more than three times the number of immigrants since 2018. By increasing the number of French-speaking immigrants, Canada aims to increase the diversity of Canada’s cultural and linguistic landscape by promoting the French language. At the same time, the French immigrants also enable Canada to tackle labour shortages.
Canada will continue to promote Francophone immigration in the coming years as well. In the Action Plan for Official Languages 2018-2023, the country allocated $40.7 million for promoting Francophone immigration. Besides Bill C-13 has proposed a Francophone immigration policy for perpetuating French language in the country.
Canada immigration for French speakers
There are many immigration pathways for French speakers to migrate to Canada as skilled worker. One important pathway among these is the Express Entry. Under Express Entry, a French-speaking candidate can earn up to 50 additional points for French-language proficiency. Further, provinces like Nova Scotia and Quebec are also taking special efforts to promote the immigration of French speakers. Nova Scotia has launched its Francophone immigration action plan ‘Growing Nova Scotia’s Francophone Population: An Action Plan for Success (2022-25)’ in order to attract more French speakers to the province. Quebec also, as part of its efforts to promote Francophone immigration, is planning to accelerate the path to permanent residence (PR) for francophone immigrants who are already living in Quebec. This will mainly target international graduates and temporary workers. Ontario is another province that takes keen efforts to promote French-language immigration as it has an exclusive immigration stream for the same, which is Express Entry French-speaking Skilled Worker Stream.
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