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LAz
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undermining Quebecois French independenceI'm back... I've spent some miserable time in Boston this past week.
Anyhows, back to the topic...
...'Tis a sad sad fate for them...
...though a smart strategy for the Canadian government in how to handle the pro-secessionists.
| Quote: | Newcomers challenge Quebec separatists
By Christopher Mason
Published: May 20, 2007
VERDUN, Quebec: As cultural coordinator for a resource center for new Quebecers, Gabriel Garcia is leading an effort to bridge the gap between the growing number of immigrants here and the mostly French-speaking society into which they have moved.
But one issue is proving to be a bridge too far for the province's first-generation immigrant population: the long struggle for independence. "I realize it is important for many," said Garcia, who mainly works with people from Central and South America, voicing a sentiment shared by almost all the recent immigrants. "But for me, sovereignty is not my primary passion."
The number of immigrants entering Quebec each year has nearly doubled since the last referendum on independence, in 1995, failed by a razor-thin margin. Immigrants now represent more than 10 percent of the electorate.
That expanding demographic consists of people who have no historical stake in the traditional French-English divide. The evolving society is one of many challenges facing the political vehicle of the separatist movement, the Parti Québécois, after the resignation May 8 of the party's leader, André Boisclair.
Boisclair, 41, became increasingly unpopular during his 18 months at the party's helm, especially after elections in March when the Parti Québécois finished in third place, its worst showing in more than 30 years.
Although French-speaking Quebecers continue to form a clear majority of the population, the growing number of immigrants, along with a greatly reduced birthrate, point to a shift that is forcing political parties, separatist and federalist, to rethink their foundations.
"Immigrants who come from outside during their adult life choose Canada," said Pierre Martin, a political scientist at the University of Montreal. "They've immigrated to Canada, and those who choose sovereignty are a relatively limited number."
Economists have said that Quebec has little choice but to embrace the immigrants because of a plummeting native birthrate that would otherwise reduce economic growth.
Even with a birthrate well below the rate of replacement, Quebec's population grew 4.3 percent from 2001 to 2006, to 7.5 million.
"Quebec has gone from having the highest birthrate in the country to one of the lowest in one generation, so any growth in the work force is going to come from new Quebecers," said Glen Hodgson, chief economist at the Conference Board of Canada, a nonprofit group in Ottawa. "How far is Quebec willing to go to accommodate those new to Quebec?" |
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/20/america/quebec.php
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Abieuan
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Those who wish to move to Quebec should have to learn French, this will give them the "passion"
If their children prefer to speak French than English, then they will be a multicultural society ready for independence.
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LAz
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| Abieuan wrote: | Those who wish to move to Quebec should have to learn French, this will give them the "passion"
If their children prefer to speak French than English, then they will be a multicultural society ready for independence. |
It has not brought about any sort of passion. They are not french, that's why.
edit: (so if they are not french, they have no reason to support a french state outside of this bigger multiethnic one)
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Holebender
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The Quebecois are not French either! They may be Francophone and they may even be descended from French people but they are no more French than the population of Louisiana.
Next you'll be telling us that South Africans are Dutch, or Australians are English. They are (many of them) descended from colonists from those countries but they parted ways with the original home countries centuries ago.
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