With a few new proposals that were introduced by the Quebec government on June 7, I would translate this to an increase of 10,500 newcomers to Quebec from this year’s maximum of 42,000 and mark an approximate return to the immigration level that was in place before the election of the province’s new Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) government in October 2018. Quebec’s immigration levels in the period 2015 was 53,084, 2016 was 52,388 and 2017 was 51,118.
It is also said that the proposals released on June 7 will be the basis of public hearings on immigration, which will begin on August 12.
Changing immigration levels in Quebec
Recently, the immigration levels of Quebec were more than 50,000 during the period 2015-2018. The Quebec government aimed at bringing down the immigration levels in 2018. It aimed at fulfilling an election promise regarding the newcomers failing to integrate into the French-speaking province properly.
In the proposals introduced on June 7, the Immigration Ministry of Quebec (MIDI) revealed that the number of newcomers was decreased in the previous year to revamp the integration programs of the French-speaking province. Now the government will gradually increase the number of newcomers per year by 3000 or 4000 between 2020 and 2022. It would allow both the state and civil societies actors to offer immigrants with the tools that they require to integrate into Quebec society successfully. So, by 2022, the immigration levels will be between 49,500 and 52,500. Out of these, 65 percent of newcomers will be selected through the economic-class immigration programs of Quebec.
The proposals published Friday by the province’s Immigration Ministry (MIDI) said the reduction was necessary to revamp the province’s integration programs and services.
MIDI assures that the foundations for these reforms are already established, but the actual policies and programs for enforcing them and attaining their objectives are yet to be put in place.
“For this reason, we foresee a gradual increase in the order of 3,000 to 4,000 new admissions per year [between 2020 and 2022] to allow both state and civil society actors to provide all immigrants to the province with the tools they need to integrate into Quebec society successfully.”
The government aims to attain an immigration level of around 52,500 by 2022.
