Relaxation of some rules for international students to Quebec may be too late, advocate says

A group that defends the rights of immigrants in Quebec says the province’s latest move to facilitate the arrival of some international students may be too late.

Last week the François Legault government ramped up French-language requirements for immigrants. Quebec will require most economic immigrants to speak French before arriving.

That includes increasing French-language requirements for temporary foreign workers and foreign students under the Quebec Experience Program (PEQ).

But it also loosened some PEQ restrictions at the same time.

Under a 2020 reform of PEQ, access to those wanting to immigrate to the province was limited. Some French speakers didn’t quality for the program, for instance, even if they spoke French fluently and were from French-speaking countries.

The province modified that rule last week to increase French-language immigration thresholds

The relaxation of the rules will not benefit everyone, for those who graduate from an English university, they will in large numbers not have access to the Quebec Experience Program.

“It’s sort of a mixed message that they’re sending to graduates of English institutions, it’s sort of sending the message that it’s not really worth the effort to learn French because we’re not going to recognize your level,” said Claire Launay, the co-founder and president of “Le Québec c’est nous aussi.”

Launay understands why the province needed to make the change – something her organization has been advocating for since the reform in 2020.

“It can’t have been easy for them to go back on the rules that they made themselves three years ago,” she said. “So I think they were forced by the situation. I mean, we have a labour shortage right now in Quebec.”

WATCH: Quebec hopes to achieve majority French-speaking economic immigrants

But Launay believes the change may have come too late, with many Francophones choosing to leave or immigrate to other provinces within the country.

“We’ve definitely seen people who have decided to leave Quebec or some to not even start, even if they wanted to come to Quebec. But they changed their plans,” she said.

CityNews spoke to an immigrant and international student who felt the rules – and the seemingly frequent back-and-forth – were confusing.

“They don’t know what they’re doing,” said Mehdi Djelloul, who has been in Montreal for 22 years. “Every time they’re coming up with the new rules. So it shows that they don’t have a specific plan to meet their agenda.”

“It’s becoming more frustrating for immigrants and international students such as myself,” added Sorouash Omrpour.

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Launay says Quebec has been less attractive to immigrants for years.

“Because it was making it harder for people to stay here, but also because the federal government was making it easier to settle in the rest of Canada,” she said. “So people were just looking and comparing between Quebec and the rest of Canada and it was just much easier to go somewhere else.

“When you see that other provinces are making it really easy to stay and the messaging is very different as well. It’s hard sometimes for people who come from other places to really project their lives here.”

The Quebec Experience Program was created in 2010, offering a fast track to immigration to Quebec for graduate students and temporary workers. Launay says due to the tightening of rules, there are fewer and fewer international students choosing to stay in the province.

“The number of people who come here to study has never been higher,” said Launay. “But the number of people who applied to actually stay here and applied for a CSQ (certificat de selection) initially, Quebec has never been lower in the past 10 years.

“So we could very much see in the data that students were choosing to come here but not stay here. And that’s a missed opportunity for Quebec.”

WATCH: Quebec Premier says the province can’t take in more immigrants

But even with requirements like work experience for 12-18 months in order to qualify for the PEQ program eliminated and faster access for students from French-speaking educational institutions, Launay repeats it might be too late.

“We can hear that immigrants are threats, immigrants are associated with violence… and it’s sort of this repeated message that Quebec is not really welcoming to immigrants. And what’s really too bad about that messaging is we know that a lot of Quebecers don’t feel that way. But when this is the message that we hear every day, every week by the government, it’s hard to really feel like you belong.”