2023-05-05 22:18:45
Pilot programs aimed at giving permanent status to French-speaking immigrants did not meet with the expected success. Two years after their creation by Quebec, two of these fast lanes of immigration designed to attract orderlies and food factory workers have starving participation rates, according to what found The duty. A third pilot program to attract workers, particularly in the field of artificial intelligence, is also not reaching its targets.
“These are very restrictive programs,” explains Ms.e Laurence Trempe, lawyer at EXEO and member of the Quebec Association of Immigration Lawyers (AQAADI). Responding to the department’s call, she had already expressed some reservations about these pilot programs, set up to allow certain immigrants not to lose access to permanent residence, while the reform, more restrictive, of the Quebec Experience Program (PEQ) had left them in a vacuum.
Created in March 2021, the pilot program for workers in the food processing sector (slaughterhouses, seafood factories, etc.), where the needs are great, was to attract 550 people per year. However, in two years, barely 50 applications have been submitted and 25 Quebec selection certificates (CSQ) have been issued under this program.
Created at the same time, with the same targets, that of beneficiary attendants received just over 200 CSQ requests, of which less than half were issued, according to data dating from the end of 2022.
Finally, with a target of 600 people per year, the pilot program in artificial intelligence and information technologies and visual effects received only 869 applications over two years, and 701 CSQs were issued. It should be noted that this two-part program reserves a total of 300 places (out of its annual target of 600) for non-French speakers and that this target was reached in less than two months for one of the parts, that of communication technologies. information and visual effects.
Too restrictive?
According to Dimitri Fraeys, Vice-President Innovation and Economic Affairs of the Conseil de la transformation alimentation du Québec, the low participation can be explained by the difficulty for some of obtaining an equivalent of a high school diploma, which is nevertheless the one of the criteria, and by the 24 months of experience required, rather than 12 in some provinces. “Some workers will ask to be transferred to New Brunswick, for example, where the delays are shorter before they become permanent,” he explains.
However, some temporary workers recently meet the two-year experience requirement, which could increase the number of applications, according to the Department of Immigration. The latter says he has already observed an increase in recent months.
Is the requirement to hold a level 7 on the Quebec scale of French proficiency levels a hindrance? Perhaps, suggests immigration lawyer Krishna Gagné, “but perhaps not in the case of beneficiary attendants, who generally have to speak French”. She notes that the program targeting beneficiary attendants will no longer generate interest by 2024, because the profession has recently been classified in a higher category, which will allow immigrants practicing it to qualify for the PEQ.
While Liberal MP for Nelligan, Monsef Derraji, called these programs “failures”, his colleague from Quebec solidaire, Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, called for a “relaxation” of the criteria.
During the study of credits, the Minister of Immigration, Francisation and Integration (MIFI), Christine Fréchette, indicated that there were 550 annual places in each of the programs, but that there These were not “goals”. She also said that the program had to be given time to “make itself known” and that a relaxation of the criteria was not envisaged. “When you give five years to a pilot program, you have to give the time estimated at the start to assess the relevance and the impact,” she argued. “For now, the programs remain as they are and when it’s time to analyze them, we’ll see if [convient] to soften. »
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