Why are French immigrants flocking to Quebec?

Jordan On the surface, it seems obvious. If you are a citizen leaving France and you are looking for a new place to call hall home. Of course, you would move to Quebec, right? For a long, long time, though, that was not the case. You can blame the sting of old wounds suffered in very old wars. Over the past several decades, however, that had begun to change. And over the past few years, the pace has accelerated, so much so that French citizens arriving in Quebec can find expat communities to help them settle in, get comfortable and, well, what do people coming here from France see when they look around at Quebec? It looks very different to them than it does to us. To them. It’s almost America. What is driving this increasing exodus from France in the first place? Why do they land in Canada? And what kind of impact are these growing numbers having on Quebec?

I’m Jordan Heath-Rawlings, this is the Big Story. Eric Andrew Gee is the Quebec correspondent for the Globe and Mail. Hello, Eric.

Eric Hi, Jordan.

Jordan Can you begin? And I realize I’m asking you to go back, possibly 100 years or more. You can be very general about it and maybe give us a brief history of immigration from France to Quebec.

Eric Yeah. It’s more like 400 years.

Jordan right.

Eric Quebec started in its current form as a French colony. Champlain came and founded Quebec City in 1608 and immigration was very slow going at first, it’s part of one of the distinctive things about New France that it had a hard time attracting settlers compared to other European colonies in what they call the New World. Estimates range from sort of 10,000 to 30,000 settlers in the French colonial period, which lasted about 150 years. So that’s not a lot. And in fact, as I point out in the piece, there’s been more French immigrants to Quebec in the last 20 years than there were during the entire period of New France, as it was known.

So it died down significantly kind of after the British conquest. This is in 1759, the British win the Plains of Abraham and take over. And for the next 100 years, you had about 15 French immigrants to Quebec per year. In some cases, they were members of the clergy fleeing revolutionary fervour back in the old country. It was sort of an ad hoc random sprinkling of French migrants to Quebec. And it only really picks up again in any significant way in the middle of the 20th century, Expo 67 was an exciting thing for the French, like for a lot of people, sort of the pinnacle of recent Montreal history. The whole world had its eyes trained on the city and thousands and thousands of French people came to stay for good as a result of that kind of moment in the sun.

And it hasn’t really let up since then, although this recent wave of French immigration to Quebec kind of dates to the turn of the Millennium and the sort of outward turn on the part of France. Historically, that the French weren’t a big part of the sort of great 19th century migration across the Atlantic. There’s no little Paris in New York the way there is a little Italy. There’s probably 20 little Italy in New York. And the French kind of stayed home partly because they had their own big industrial cities to move to. There used to be an old stereotype that they basically were happy with their baguettes and cheese and wine and had no great aspirations for life other than a comfortable quality of life, which France afforded them.

That was sort of bogus. But for whatever reason, it’s true that French immigration was not a major phenomenon until relatively recently. But the French have discovered the rest of the world or rediscovered it. And there are French emigrants all over the place. London is a big magnet for the French, New York, and for sort of obvious reasons, Montreal, all of a sudden, they speak French here. And it’s one of the biggest Francophone cities in the world. So here they are, having rediscovered Quebec 250 years after the British conquest. It’s that sort of, I guess, sort of irony, historical irony or sort of coincidence or kink or whatever that got me interested in the subject.

Jordan Everything comes full circle.

Eric That’s right.

Jordan So when you say that since the turn of the century, it’s been increasing rapidly, can you quantify that a little bit? Like give us a sense of how many people we’re talking about and how fast it’s increasing.

Eric Yeah. So in terms of actual immigration, like people who have gotten permanent residency here, France is the third largest source of immigration to Quebec in the last 20 years, just behind Algeria and Morocco, two other former French colonies, which as a result, have large francophone populations. But it’s about 40,000 French landed immigrants who have come to Quebec in the last 20 years.

And what’s remarkable about that, I mean, it’s only third, but it’s so far and away ahead of any other rich country. The top ten lists is all other relatively typical sources of immigration to Canada in the last 40 years, when European immigration of the kind of pre and post war period dried up and emigration from what used to be called the Third World picked up. India and China, and people moving to Canada to prove their economic lot and the French immigration to Quebec bucks that trend. There’s no other European or rich world country anywhere close to the top of the list.

And it’s not your typical wave of immigration in the sense that these are mostly upper middle class young professionals who are sort of seeking adventure in what seems to me an almost kind of old fashioned way. It’s a compelling aspect of that. Also the 40,000 doesn’t even give a full sense of the scope of it, because there’s tons of students, which is harder to quantify, there’s more coming and going. And people who come on work-travel visas, people you might not describe as immigrants necessarily, but people who are living here for a few years.

But at any given time, the French population of Montreal and environs is about 150,000, which is kind of incredible. And you hear it in the streets here.

Jordan Why is it happening now? Was there something that happened at the turn of the century, something that’s been growing either in France or something in Quebec that makes it more attractive?

Eric It wasn’t super abrupt. I mean, as historians of immigration to Quebec have pointed out, there’s a pretty steady stream of French immigration from the kind of post Expo period. Diplomats and experts have mentioned just a general kind of embrace of globalization within France. They’ve been emigrating to all over the world with a new kind of elan.

Quebec has become one of these sources of French immigrants, largely because its economy has been doing really well in the last 20 years, especially in the last ten years, and especially after the financial crisis 2008/2009, when the French economy didn’t bounce back well at all. And Quebec said the recession was short and it bounced back fast. And ever since, Montreal and Quebec have been on a kind of historic winning streak economically. It’s sort of an under told story that I’ve been writing a bit about, but the public finances here in better shape than ever. Unemployment is really low, much, much lower than in France. It’s just got this economic dynamism and openness that the French find kind of staggering.

It’s another one of the ironies that I liked in this story, was that although English Canadians tend to see Quebec as relatively European — there’s a big, strong state, there’s a fairly communitarian ethos, even just the charming streets with their walk up apartments and the cafe culture and all that — but the French don’t see it like that at all. They see Montreal and Quebec as being incredibly American. It’s like California, Texas, in French. People drive more here, people are friendlier and more open and warmer. There are big open landscapes and mountains and Lakes.

And the economy especially, is the biggest difference. France has a famously heavily regulated labor market. It’s hard to hire, hard to fire, hard to start a new business. Torontonians, I think, tend to think the same of Quebec. But by comparison, the French see Quebec as being just wide, wide open. Anything is possible here. I mean, French immigrants to Quebec talk about it in these sort of glowing terms, like they’ve just stepped off the boat at Ellis Island, and then it’s like the streets are paved with gold sort of thing. People talk about it as an El Dorado.

So it was a really cool perspective to get on Quebec, having just moved here recently myself, it made me realize, although Quebec is a very different place from the rest of Canada, in many ways, it’s probably less different than we realize. By French standards, it’s very North American, and that was just the kind of neat insight to get.

Jordan What is the impact on this increased immigration on Quebec itself? Does this province need more people? Is it ready to support them? You mentioned the economy. Is there a real demand for more immigrants coming to work these jobs?

Eric Huge demand. Quebec’s got a big problem right now, like in much of Canada with a labor shortage. “Pénurie de main d’oeuvre” is a phrase that’s kind of on everyone’s lips and in the headlines all the time, it’s the opposite of unemployment. Every second shop in Montreal has a hiring sign in the window. So just on an economic level, they’ve got plenty of room.

In terms of being able to accommodate them, in some ways, the French immigrants to Quebec are the model immigrants for this province and its immigration policy, which heavily favours mastery of French. The French are pretty good at that. Although hilariously, there was this episode in which a French grad student who wrote one chapter of her PhD thesis in English, as a result, flunked the French component of her permanent residency application because it was decided that she had done her graduate studies too much in English.

Jordan That sounds like a quintessentially Quebec story.

Eric It was one of these things that got picked up, the sort of excesses of the language police story that probably don’t quite represent the texture of language politics here that accurately. But, yes, it was a sort of hilarious bureaucratic overreach that got a lot of attention among French expats, too.

But no, I mean, look, Quebec has a real sense of tension around needing immigration for the sake of population growth and the economy and wanting to preserve its language. And it has a very different attitude towards immigration as a result than the rest of Canada. So the French fit in perfectly to this equation. It’s a highly educated population that speaks perfect French, so in many ways, it should be a match made in heaven.

Jordan Well, you mentioned exactly what’s attractive about Quebec to people who are still in France. The open nature of it all, the sense of adventure. Streets are paved with gold, et cetera. How does that compare with what French people find when they get here?

Eric Right. So this is another one of the fun things about researching this. The French have a bunch of stereotypes about Quebec, some of which are confirmed and some of which aren’t. All the nature stuff, that’s true.

My French exchange student from high school now lives in Montreal. In fact, he lives on my street by a complete coincidence. This is just what happens when you move to Montreal, the French are everywhere. And he lives in this little condo like the rest of us in the Plateau. But he’s already bought a chalet in the Laurentians and spends as much time as he can up there. And it’s just got this big lake, he’s got an ATV, he’s got a snowmobile, he’s got a pontoon boat, he’s going to be shopping at Bass Pro shop pretty soon. He’s like way into the North American outdoorsy thing. So that part is confirmed, much to their delight.

I mean, by and large, the French who have come here really like it. People speak very fondly of Quebecers and the economic opportunities that this place affords. That all turns out to be true. One thing they find surprising is that it’s not France. It’s not France plus, with all these other fun add ons. it’s a completely distinct society that they — the French that is — abandoned 250 years ago or were kicked out of. And in the intervening period, a lot has happened. As I mentioned earlier, they’re Americans who speak French, not French people living in America. That’s the refrain you often hear, and that can come as a shock.

Among other things, they find Quebecers very suburban in their sort of lifestyle. They all have swimming pools. It’s something the French often notice as soon as they’re circulating Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport, they see these dots of chlorinated blue in the suburbs around Montreal. And that’s not just an urban planning and housing thing, they find that people’s social lives are quite suburban, too. Everything’s built around the family and the backyard and the barbecue and the swimming pool. You have your tight knit group of friends, you have your in-laws over. It’s this sort of Leave it to Beaver American stereotype.

And many urban French folks that I spoke to found that a bit unnerving. They’re used to popping out for a cinq à sept after work, they find their Quebecois colleagues are much more likely to hop in the car and drive to Longueuil or Laval and settle into their big comfy couch and live their suburban lives. So that dovetails with the biggest challenge they find, which is, although Quebecers are friendly, they’re slow to form intimacies the French find. And the French who have many cliches about themselves too, feel that they’re the opposite. They can be cold and forbidding at first, but once you’re in, you’re in. And they find Quebecers to be really hard to get close to.

These are all generalizations, right? For every example of this phenomenon, there’s hundreds and thousands of the opposite. There’s lots of intermarriage, many French immigrants to Quebec have lots of Quebecois friends, and everything’s gone perfectly.

Jordan For sure.

Eric But as a result, there’s so many French here now, especially in Montreal, that it’s easy — in fact, it’s the easiest thing — to just socialize with fellow expats or immigrants. And that does happen a lot. And it’s much remarked on and to some extent lamented within the French community here because they feel, what are we doing here? We’ve moved and we’re just hanging out with other guys from Marseille or whatever. But it does happen.

Jordan You mentioned language earlier. Is there any culture clash or language clash between the traditional French and the Quebecois French culture among these groups? I ask this only because I know there’s kind of a longstanding differentiation among English people who speak a little French between French French for lack of a better term, and Quebecois French.

Eric Yeah, there’s a huge disconnect. I mean, French French, and Quebecois French are very different. They’re obviously mutually intelligible. I don’t want to exaggerate it. It’s not like a dialect. But yeah, there’s completely different sets of slang, although some Quebecois teens are starting to use French slang just because there’s so many other French kids around. And because the popular culture is more saturated with French culture than ours is in the rest of Canada. They’ll say things like “Du coup” or “bref” or “franchement” or little phrases that a typical Quebecer wouldn’t have said 20, 30 years ago, but it’s starting to leak into the local vocab.

But yeah, the French find the Quebecois accent very quaint. I won’t attempt to imitate it, but it’s seen as sort of coarser and more countrified than the French Metropolitan accent, which is also sort of an exaggeration and stereotype. French who kind of establish themselves here, they still sound like French people on the street. This is where I got the idea for the piece. You walk around the streets of the Plateau, and every third accent is French from France, and you can tell immediately if you have any kind of ear for it.

I mean, it’s kind of great for an anglophone moving to Montreal because the clerks in my neighbourhood in the Eastern part of the Plateau don’t even come close to switching to English when you start speaking your accented French. In some cases because they don’t speak English because unlike Quebecers who are very bilingual, the French mostly aren’t. The French do say they pick up these turns of phrases and these traces of the accent. And to French people back home, they sound very Quebecois, whereas to any Quebecer, they’re identifiable as a French person within about .5 seconds.

Jordan It’s so rare that I get to do one of these stories that basically seems like a mutually beneficial arrangement all around with no downside. So I want to ask you while I still have you here, what are the challenges? Is there anything about this phenomenon that’s not working for someone?

Eric I mean, less and less because the French have collectively decided that they’re going to be good guests and not be snooty about things. That’s a thing that’s been happening in recent years. But there used to be a stereotype of the French in Quebec that they were haughty and contemptuous of their sort of country cousins. They would swan in and take the best jobs and sort of only mingle amongst themselves and only eat their own kind of food and look down their nose at all the kind of bumpkin behaviour they saw in the Quebecers. So “Les Maudits Français” the damn French used to be a kind of refrain among a certain kind of Quebecers, but that’s fading away in terms of getting along on a day to day level.

One thing that people still complain about, and in fact complain about more and more, is the French are driving up housing prices in parts of Montreal, which is probably true. I have many French neighbours who live in a gentrifying neighbourhood. They come here much better off than most immigrants, and it’s ridiculously cheap compared to Paris. That’s something I forgot to say, that’s probably one of the two or three biggest draws is that you can live in a really nice apartment in Montreal. It’s why people from Toronto like it here, too. But Paris is that much more expensive. And you live in a shoe box in Paris. And here all these beautiful old triplexes with the spiral staircases and everyone, no matter where you’re from in the world, just finds them totally charming.

So yeah, I had a friend who didn’t want to be on the record on this, and he sort of said, “look, it’s like they’re colonizing us all over again.” He doesn’t give it that much thought. He’s not sitting around stewing about the French, but his one gripe is that in certain neighbourhoods like the Plateau, which kind of lots of people want to live in, they are pushing up housing prices. That’s probably true. So this is sort of a problem of too much of a good thing which Montreal is increasingly facing. It’s been on this economic roll, life is getting more expensive, and the French have been contributing to that in their way.

Jordan Eric, thanks so much for this. It was a pleasure. I learned a lot. It’s always nice to see a culture in your own country through immigrants from another country’s eyes, especially when it’s one that we see as so different from ours, like Quebec.

Eric That’s exactly right. I’m glad that’s what you’ve taken away from this. That’s what drew me to this. And I think it is a valuable perspective on Quebec. You learn something about France and their priorities, and you learn a lot about Quebec. I think the main thing being it’s not so different. We’re all North Americans with our big kind of common culture, and that’s how the French see us. And they’re kind of right.

Jordan Thanks again.

Eric Thanks, Jordan.

Jordan Eric Andrew Gee in Montreal for The Globe and Mail.

That was the Big Story, for more, head to thebigstorypodcast.ca . Find us on Twitter at @TheBigStoryFPN. Talk to US anytime via email, thebigstorypodcast@rci.rogers.com [click here!].

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