This November, Quebec’s Minister of Immigration Jean-Francois Roberge released his immigration plans for 2026-2029, which aims at reducing the number of foreign residents in Quebec, attributing them to the strain on public infrastructure and services, as well as with issues of integration and the preservation of the French language. Another point of tension is the question of maintaining the secularism of the state, an ideology which places many visibly religious immigrants outside the realm of Quebecois identity. Most notably, the plan involves an unprecedented end to the Quebec Experience Program (PEQ), the most widely used, and efficient stream for temporary residents in Quebec to gain permanent residency (PR) after having either worked or studied in the province. Rather than freezing arrival programs for people yet to even consider coming to Quebec, the minister has decided to end the 15 year PEQ, restricting current residents from requesting permanent residency in a province they already live in. This path, once advertised by the Quebec government to attract foreign nationals seeking a permanent settlement plan in Canada, now leaves many temporary residents in the ultimate predicament, fearing their loss of status in the province.
The question arises: if this November’s immigration plan truly aims at addressing concerns of French language, integration, and infrastructure, why has Quebec imposed harsher restrictions on temporary foreign workers and graduates seeking permanent residency than on those who have not yet arrived in Quebec?
The Quebec Experience Program
Implemented in 2010, the PEQ presented its interest in international graduates and workers on temporary permits, citing their high prospects for integration. Temporary students, having graduated from a Quebec post-secondary institution, already hold a French diploma and have been educated in the province, while temporary workers, with years of experience in the Quebec labour market, will have developed the skills desired by employers, making them perfect candidates for PR.
As seen in the rapidly changing immigration plans at both the provincial and federal levels, it is evident that Canadian immigration policies often depend upon market demands and capacity. This has involved the advertising of permanent residency programs on government websites to attract both high and low-skill foreigners seeking PR, while Canada continues to fill its market gaps, as highlighted in the PEQ approach. It seems as though now, however, that Quebec is not only balancing between its market demands and infrastructural capacity, but also between some of its most divisive social issues; linguistic preservation, social integration, and the secularism of the state.
In responding to the concerns of growing anti-immigration sentiments in the province, Quebec seeks to show initiative by freezing the PEQ, consequently limiting the amount of those granted PR. The government simultaneously appears reluctant, however, to limit the amount of temporary work and study permits granted to people who have not yet arrived. This inconsistency raises a key question: what explains Quebec’s enthusiasm to restrict the former, but its hesitation to do the same with the latter?
Filling in the Gaps
The selective restriction of immigration exposes the government’s motivations to reap the economic benefits of temporary foreign workers without providing them with avenues to permanent residency. Local media organizations, such as City News, have uncovered these opportunistic motivations, revealing that industries in Quebec involving low-wage workers, such as restaurants, express outrage with the federal government’s cutting of temporary foreign work permits, and caps on the hiring maximum of foreign workers in companies. This implies that temporary workers often undertake the labour roles that are scarcely supplied by already permanent residents. Similarly, in his talks with Ottawa on Canada’s immigration plans for 2026-2028, Roberge argued that the federal government went “too far” in their cutting of temporary foreign workers, implying that Quebec needs their labour but not their permanence. By freezing key pathways to permanent residency while only slightly reducing the number of temporary permits granted, Quebec aims to keep temporary workers temporary, filling their labour gaps, without offering real certainty or stability. To justify these decisions, though, Quebec cites immigrants’ issues with integration, the French language, and other cultural differences.
Ministry of Immigration: Quebec’s Unique Approach
Quebec’s Ministry of Immigration, Francization and Integration (MIFI), or “Le Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation, et de l’Intégration”, seems to differ from other provinces in their framing of a “good” or “deserving” immigrant. It is widely understood that Canadian immigration policies are generally guided by the economy’s labour needs, with multiculturalism as a guiding principle, some going as far as to call it a mosaic of cultures, religions, and languages. Quebec however, seems to be more interested with an immigrant’s prospect for integration and their linguistic abilities. This can be contrasted with Ontario, which takes on many of the national principles such as prioritizing the labour and skills of an immigrant, as seen in their Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development. Ontario is also more willing to collaborate with the federal government in immigration plans, as seen in Ontario’s Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP), a key federal program for immigrants with sought-after skills to obtain PR in Ontario. For one, Ontario prioritizes an immigrant’s skills and talent over their cultural and linguistic integration, and secondly, it is willing to collaborate with the federal government in its key immigration programs. Quebec however, is often at odds with the federal government’s immigration policies, contrary to Ontario’s willingness to collaborate with them, implying that the latter is more concerned with general economic and labour demands, whereas Quebec feels that their unique social and linguistic needs are not properly addressed at the federal level.
Integration: What does it mean?
The core of Quebec’s recent policy changes is not only economic or infrastructural, but relates crucially to issues of integration. According to the Quebec government, integration is an attempt to make excluded peoples adapt to the values, ideas, norms and habits of the host society. Based on the new policy changes, and their emphasis on integration, temporary residents who do not speak French are seen as holding principles or skills that differ from Quebec’s, making them undeserving of permanence, but does this stop at the issue of French language, or are there other values that temporary residents are missing in order to deserve permanence? It comes as no surprise that Immigration Minister Jean-Francois Roberge also leads Quebec’s Ministry of Secularism which recently proposed a legislation prohibiting public prayer, and is the same ministry that passed Bill 21, a law prohibiting the display of religious symbols in government employment. Both Bill 21 and the recently proposed legislation are without question, directed towards visibly religious people in Quebec, many of whom are immigrants and temporary residents, as Premier Francois Legault directs his statement against public prayer towards the “Islamists” of Quebec. These policies are attempts at removing religion from the public sphere to more strongly enforce Quebec’s principle value of secularism on its people. This begs the question: who is left out? If the integration of immigrants into sharing common values, is a priority for Quebec in their efforts to better restrict who is deserving of permanence, what does this mean for Quebec residents who fundamentally fall outside of these principle values, and is this the real reason that Quebec only wants them as temporary, and not permanent?
Concluding Remarks
These reflections lead to many unsettling questions: What does it mean to be temporary in a place to which you have permanently contributed? What does it mean to invest in friendships, communities, and routines in Quebec, unsure if you will be there for good? What does it mean to be treated as a commodity by the very place that sought you out and promised you stability and permanence?
Edited by Gabriela Flaschberger
Disclaimer: This is an article written by a Staff Writer. Catalyst is a student-led platform that fosters engagement with global issues from a learning perspective. The opinions expressed above do not necessarily reflect the views of the publication.
Dala is in her third year at McGill, pursuing an Honours B.A in International Development Studies with a double minor in Political Science and World Islamic and Middle East Studies. She is particularly interested in the politics of the Middle East and North Africa, and immigration.