LANG – Francophone Immigration Outside Québec – December 6, 2022

Key Messages

• The Government recognizes that immigration plays an important role in supporting the vitality of Francophone minority communities across the country and is a contributing factor to the demographic weight of these communities.
• In 2019, IRCC announced a comprehensive Francophone Immigration Strategy to reach a 4.4% target of French-speaking immigrant admissions outside Québec by 2023. This target was established in consultation with community stakeholders.

• The Strategy has yielded increases in French-speaking immigration admissions outside Québec:

  2017	1.77%
  2018	1.82%
  2019	2.82%
  2020	3.61%
  2021	1.95%Footnote *
  2022 (January-October)	4.1%
  Table Footnotes Footnote * decline due to the pandemic given that French-speaking admissions are mainly from abroad Return to footnote * referrer

• The resumption of overseas processing early in 2022 has also contributed to increasing francophone admissions. IRCC is closely monitoring progress towards the target of 4.4%, and is on track to reach it by the 2023 deadline – as per our commitment.
• On November 10, 2022, a new national Centre for Innovation in Francophone Immigration in Dieppe, New Brunswick was announced.
• IRCC has also initiated work on a new Francophone immigration policy in collaboration with Francophone community stakeholders.

Supplementary Messages

New Admissions Target Beyond 2023

• IRCC is working on the development of a new admissions target beyond 2023 that will be both ambitious and attainable, evidence-based, and that will take into consideration stakeholder and expert views, including the study from the Commissioner of Official Languages.

Selection Tools

• Several measures have been put in place to support francophone immigration, including the introduction of additional points allocated to French-speaking and bilingual candidates under the Express Entry system in 2020, the time-limited Temporary Resident to Permanent Resident Pathway in 2021. Recent legislative changes to increase flexibility in selection tools under Express Entry (expected to be operational by spring 2023) support francophone immigration.

Settlement and Integration

• In 2019, IRCC implemented the Francophone Integration Pathway, which funds tailored services for French-speaking newcomers from pre-arrival to citizenship. It also ensures that newcomers, of all linguistic backgrounds, are aware of these services and the possibilities to settle in French outside Québec.
• The Francophone Integration Pathway is implemented by Francophone organizations in alignment with the “by and for Francophones” approach, with the aim of supporting the vitality of Francophone minority communities.

Promotional Activities

• My Department, with provincial and territorial partners, is pursuing year-round targeted in-person and virtual promotional activities in Canada and abroad, to expand the pool of potential, qualified French-speaking and bilingual candidates.
• From January to October 2022, approximately 400 in-Canada promotional activities involving multiple stakeholders such as employers, community and economic development agencies, as well as Universities and Colleges, took place.
• From January to October 2022, IRCC has organized or participated in approximately 200 activities abroad to promote Francophone immigration, including the first recruitment fair dedicated to early childhood education and teaching. In November 2022, we participated in the Francophonie Summit in Djerba, Tunisia.
• We supported a delegation of community representatives from across Canada to Destination Canada Mobility Forum, which was held in November 2022 in Rabat, Morocco and Paris, France as well as online. Two recruitment fairs will follow to assist employers hiring French-speaking and bilingual workers in the IT and hospitality sectors, two sectors in high demand in Canada.

Supporting Facts And Figures

• From January 2003 to October 2022, more than 87,400 French-speaking immigrants were admitted to Canada outside Québec, and for the first time, since 2019, a minimum of 5,000 admissions of French-speaking immigrants per year has been reached.
• From January 1st, 2022 to October 31st, 2022, a total of 13,587 French-speaking permanent residents were admitted to Canada outside Québec, including 81% (10,967) via the Economic Category. The top three lines of business that contributed to these admissions include the Federal Skilled Workers (29%), the Provincial/Territorial Nominees Program (29%), and the Temporary Resident to Permanent Resident Pathway (17%).
• In 2021, IRCC created a new time-limited Temporary Resident to Permanent Resident Pathway, which was open to applications from May 6 to November 5, 2021. This included uncapped streams for French-speaking and bilingual essential workers, including those in health care, and recent international graduates from a Canadian institution who were already in Canada and who possessed the skills and experience to support economic growth and recovery. As of October 31, 2022, over 3,500 permanent residents were admitted under the francophone streams of this Pathway.
• Given the large accumulated inventory of French-speaking applicants living abroad due to pandemic-related travel restrictions and a focus on in-Canada processing in 2020 and 2021, projections indicate that the Department is on track to reach the 4.4% target by the 2023 deadline under the current operational plan, representing 15,862 to 19,910 admissions, as per the 2023-2025 Immigration Levels Plan.

Background

• IRCC’s 2019 Francophone Immigration Strategy includes a target of 4.4% of French-speaking immigrants outside Québec by 2023 (the demographic weight of Francophones outside Québec as per the 2001 Census).
• While immigration plays a role in maintaining the demographic weight a number of factors contributed to its decline, including a low fertility rate and incomplete transmission of French as a mother tongue to the children of French-speaking parents.
• In collaboration with provinces and territories, IRCC is advancing the federal/provincial/territorial (FPT) Action Plan to increase Francophone immigration outside Quebec.
• Additional points to candidates with strong French-speaking skills under Express Entry (EE) were introduced in June 2017, and further increased in October 2020. The share of invitations issued to these candidates increased from 2.9% in 2017 to 5.2% in 2020, but declined to 3% in 2021 given that IRCC targeted invitations to individuals already in Canada due to the pandemic.
• Recent changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act will allow the Minister to support economic objectives by selecting candidates with specific attributes, such as experience in a specific occupation, official language knowledge, Canadian study experience, or a combination thereof The Department is assessing and consulting on how to best use the new tool to help meet Canada’s labour market needs, including considering selection based on attributes such as French language skills.
• The Centre for Innovation in Francophone Immigration will be national in scope and will help to make immigration programs more accessible to increase the number of French-speaking candidates selected; better meet the bilingual workforce needs; and, support international promotion efforts to attract and recruit French-speaking candidates in our labour market. IRCC aims to invest $12.9 million over 4 years to establish the Dieppe Centre, then $5.6 million each year beyond that to ensure the implementation of the programming. Note that the investment could be higher depending on the scope of the programming.