8. Conclusion

This study of English-speaking immigrants in Quebec reveals that, within this larger Anglophone immigrant population, there are two distinct linguistic subpopulations: English FOLS and English-French FOLS. As outlined in this paper and shown on the overview table below, each linguistic subpopulation under the Anglophone immigrant population umbrella has distinctive demographic traits, which are evolving as immigration rates continue to increase. Compared with the English-French FOLS category, the English FOLS category is composed of more established immigrants who are older on average, are living less often in Census Families, are less likely to have knowledge of English and French and less likely to have a non-official mother tongue. Even though similar proportions of immigrants in both categories are born in European and non-European countries, the top visible minority sub-categories are different. Immigrants assigned to the English FOLS category are more likely to have self-identified as South Asian or Chinese, whereas immigrants assigned to the English-French FOLS category are more likely to have self-identified as Latin American or Arab. The socio-economic results are a little more difficult to compare, due to age, period of immigration and gender differences between the categories. It appears that immigrants assigned to the English-French FOLS category are more highly educated, have higher participation and employment rates, have similar percentages represented in professional and managerial occupation groups, while their median employment income is lower. A next step could be more rigorous statistical analysis, which would control for these different factors.

With the English FOLS and English-French FOLS dynamic in mind, another interesting fact that emerged is that immigrant communities in ERs are heterogeneous. The importance of Montréal, Montrérégie and Laval can be identified for the two Anglophone (FOLS) subpopulations of immigrants. However, each region has its own demographic composition, which may or may not be similar to that of the provincial-level results. For instance, differences are highlighted by some of the following examples: the Laurentides has the highest percentage of European-born immigrants, Laval has a large percentage of immigrants assigned to the English-French FOLS category, and Outaouais has a relatively large percentage of immigrants who lived in an ER outside of Quebec five years ago.

With the addition of the English FOLS and half of the English-French FOLS categories to derive the total Anglophone population, having a relatively large English-French FOLS category can make a difference to the Anglophone outcomes. This is especially true in ERs such as Laval and Capitale-Nationale where, after assigning immigrants, the English FOLS category is approximately the same size or smaller than the English-French FOLS category. As a result, when examining the composition of immigrants assigned to the Anglophone (FOLS) category, it may also be important to keep in mind that in some ERs there are differences between these two categories.

From the information examined here, it is difficult to know whether immigrants from this English-French FOLS category learned English or French first, or to which official language community they are more closely affiliated. These results seem to show that the English-French FOLS category is a mix of immigrants from both the English FOLS or French FOLS categories. However, it also appears that immigrants from some selected backgrounds (e.g., Romanians) are more predisposed to this bilingual Allophone category.

In sum, immigrants are playing an increasingly larger role in Anglophone communities across Quebec. The results provided here show how diverse Anglophone immigrants are. This study also highlights the importance of understanding the FOLS sub-category distribution within the province and in individual ERs, and the importance of analyzing the results for immigrants, not just in Montréal, but in ERs across the province.

Summary of results for Quebec Immigrants by FOLS categories, 2006 Census

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