User:Mathieugp/drafts/Language demographics of Quebec

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This article presents the current language demographics of Quebec, a province of Canada.

Contents

[edit] Overview

Note: The language mentioned refers to the mother tongue (see below), unless otherwise specified.

[edit] Language groups

[edit] Francophones

A strong majority in Quebec, native francophones numbered 5,761,765 individuals in 2001, counting single responses or 5,811,825

Among the ten provinces of Canada, Quebec is the only one whose majority is francophone. Quebec's francophones account for 19.5% of the Canadian population and 90% of all of Canada's French-speaking population. Quebec is the only province whose francophone population is currently not declining. (See Language in Canada).

[edit] Anglophones

The 8% of the Quebec population whose mother tongue is English resides mostly in the Greater Montreal Area, where they have a well-established network of educational, social, economic, and cultural institutions. There is also a historical English-speaking community in the Eastern Townships and the Outaouais region bordering the province of Ontario has a great proportion of anglophones as well.

[edit] Allophones

The remaining 10%, named allophones in Quebec, comprises some 30 different linguistic/ethnic groupings. With the exception of Aboriginal peoples in Quebec (the Inuit, Huron, etc.), the majority are products of 20th century immigration. There are 6.3% Italians, 2.9% Spanish speakers, 2.5% Arabic speakers, 1.7% Chinese, 1.5% Greeks, 1.4% French Creoles, 1.1% Portuguese, 0.9% Vietnamese, 0.8% Polish, and so on.

[edit] Aboriginals

Aboriginal peoples in Quebec are comprised of a heterogeneous group of about 71,000 individuals, who account for 1% of the total population of Quebec and 9% of the total population of Aboriginal peoples in Canada. Approximately 60% of those are officially recognized as "Indians" under the federal Indian Act. Nearly half (47%) of this population in Quebec reported an Aboriginal language as mother tongue, the highest proportion of any province. The following table shows the demographic situations of Aboriginal peoples in Quebec:

People Number Linguistic family Region of Quebec Language of use Second language
Abenakis 1,900 Algonquian Mauricie French Abenaki
Algonquins 8,600 Algonquian North East Algonquin French or English
Atikameks 4,900 Algonquian North Atikamek French
Crees 13,000 Algonquian North Cree English
Malecites 570 Algonquian St. Lawrence South shore French English
Micmacs 4,300 Algonquian Gaspésie Micmac French or English
Innus 13,800 Algonquian North Coast Innu French
Naskapis 570 Algonquian North East Naskapis English
Hurons 2,800 Iroquoian near Quebec City French English
Mohawks 13,000 Iroquoian near Montreal English Mohawk
Inuit 8,000 Eskimo-Aleut Arctic Inuktitut English

[edit] Phenomenons

[edit] Linguistic transfers

Main article: Linguistic transfers in Quebec

Until the 1960s, the francophone majority of Quebec had a very weak assimilation power. Although quantity of non-francophones adopted French throughout history, the pressure towards the anglicization of non-anglophones in Quebe has been much stronger and it is only because of a high fertility rate that the francophone population kept increasing in absolute numbers, in spite of assimilation and emigration. When, in the early 1960s, the fertility rate of Quebecers began declining, following a trend in most if not all Western societies, the anglophone population of Quebec (and the rest of Canada) maintained its relative weight of the total population and kept growing in absolute numbers while the francophone majority of Quebec (and the minorities in the rest of Canada) experienced the beginning of a demographic collapse.

The two reasons for the demographic decline of francophones in Canada are their inadequate fertility, a reality they share with anglophones, and linguistic assimilation (in favor of English), an issue which Quebec's language legislation tries to address since the 1970s.

The ultimate quantifiable goal of Quebec's language policy is to allow for the francophone majority to assimilate a quantity of immigrants that is proportional to its share of the total population of Quebec (~80%), hence avoid the decline of the community. After almost 30 years of enforcement of the Charter of the French Language, approximately 50% of immigrants assimilate to English. The anglophone minority's capacity to assimilate allophones and francophones is such that it currently compensates for the outmigration of anglophones to other Canadian provinces and the USA.

While francophones account for more than 80% of the total population of Quebec, a closer look at the situation of Montreal, the largest city in Quebec and the second-largest metropolitain area in Canada (3.5 million) allows us to understand why Quebecers, especially francophones, worry over the future of the French language. (See the Montreal section in this article for the statistics.)

With only 21% of the population, anglophone Quebecers living in Montreal attract significantly more immigrants to their community than the size of their population would let us assume. Numerous socio-economic factors are behind this reality: the influence of the English language in North America (and indeed the world) and thus the perceived advantage of learning English as well as French being the most important. One of the result of the attractiveness of English is that the majority of Montrealers are bilingual and move easily between French and English-speaking social milieus.

Paradoxically, while francophones fail at integrating a share of immigrants proportional to their demographic weight in the province, anglophones barely avoid demographic collapse by integrating non-anglophones including some francophones. The steady stream of outmigration that continually depletes the anglophone population is thus compansated by the community's assimilation power.

Outside Montreal however, the proportion of anglophones have shrunk to 3% of the population, and struggle to maintain a critical mass to support educational and health institutions (except on the Ontario and U.S. borders), a reality that only immigrants and francophones usually experience in the other provinces. Unilingual anglophones are however still on the decline because of the higher English-French bilingualism of the community's younger generations.

In 1996, about 51% of allophone immigrants, inluding those who arrived before the adoption of the Charter in 1977, had assimilated to French, compared to 29% in 1971. All other linguistic transfers went to English. By comparison, in the rest of Canada, linguistic transfers are generally at over 95% towards English. On the island of Montreal, the francophones do not possess the critical mass to insure that the majority of the linguistic transfers will be towards French.

A reality that affects the use of language is that of the French-English bilingualism in the private sector. Although the Charter of the French language makes French the official language of the workplace, English is very often made a requirement for employment by Quebec businesses. The result is that the workforce of Quebec, and especially Montreal, is largely bilingual. Francophones are compelled to learn English to find employment, anglophones are pressured to do the same with French and allophones are asked to learn both. In reality, allophones often learn one of the two, mostly English but more and more French. In 2001, 29% of Quebec workers declared using English, either solely (193 320), mostly (293,320), equally with French (212,545) or regularly (857,420). The proportion rises to 37% in the Montreal metropolitan area.

Net transfers between French and English 2001

  • Quebec-wide: marginal gain for English
  • Montreal Metro: net gain of 17 706 for English (native francophones adopting English at home)
  • Rest of Quebec (Quebec - Montreal): net gain of 9 895 for French (native anglophones adopting French at home)
  • Gatineau Metro: net gain of 2 443 for English (Anglophones account for 13.6% of residents)

Anglicization of francophones in Quebec, 1991, 1996, 2001

  • Quebec-wide: 1991 = 6 100, 1996 = 2 588, 2001 = 7811
  • Montreal Metro: 1991 = 15 186, 1996 = 13 792, 2001 = 17 706
  • Rest of Quebec: 1991 = -9 086, 1996 = -11 204, 2001 = -9 855

Francisation of allophones, 1991, 1996, 2001

  • Quebec-wide: 1991 = 72 246, 1996 = 91 224, 2001 = 124 181
  • Montreal Metro: 1991 = 58 956, 1996 = 274 873, 2001 = 103 559
  • Rest of Quebec: 1991 = 13 290, 1996 = 16 351, 2001 = 20 622

Anglicization of allophones, 1991, 1996, 2001

  • Quebec-wide: 1991 = 129 515, 1996 = 138 014, 2001 = 147 705
  • Montreal Metro: 1991 = 121 895, 1996 = 129 443, 2001 = 138 390
  • Rest of Quebec: 1991 = 7 620, 1996 = 8 571, 2001 = 9 315

[edit] Interprovincial migrations

[edit] International migrations

In 2003, Quebec accepted some 37,619 immigrants. A large fraction of these immigrants originated from francophone countries and countries that are former French colonies. Countries from which significant numbers of people immigrate include Haiti, Congo, Lebanon, Morocco, Rwanda, Syria, Algeria, France and Belgium.

Quebec's fertility rate is now among the lowest in Canada. At 1.48, it is well below the replacement fertility rate of 2.1. This contrasts with the fertility rate before 1960 which was among the highest of the industrialized countries. The fertility rate is a little bit higher among the allophones than among the francophones and the anglophones.

[edit] Individual Multilingualism

In 1996, 34% of native francophones claimed to also know English, compared to 26% in 1971, and 63% percent of native anglophones claimed to also know French, compared to 37% in 1971.

Among allophones, 23% know French as well, 48% French and English, and 19% English. On the whole, there has been a progression towards a better knowledge of French since 1971.

In 1996, some 182 480 persons (2.6% of population) were trilingual French-English-Spanish.

[edit] Territories

[edit] Montreal metropolitan area

Main article: Language demographics of Montreal

There are today three distinct territories in the Greater Montreal Area: the metropolitan region itself, Montreal Island, and Montreal City. (The island and the city were coterminous for a time between the municipal merger of 2002 and the "demerger" which occurred in January 2006.)

Quebec allophones account for 9% of the population of Quebec, however 88% of this population reside in the Greater Montreal. Anglophones are also concentrated in the region of Montreal (60%).

Francophones account for 68% of the total population of Greater Montreal, anglophones 12.5% and allophones 18.5%. On the island of Montreal, the francophone majority drops to 52.8% by 2005, a net decline since the 1970s owing to francophone outmigration to more affluent suburbs in Laval and the South Shore. The anglophones account for 21% of the population and the allophones 36%.

[edit] Outaouais

[edit] Estrie

[edit] Quebec without Montreal

[edit] Evolution

[edit] History

Main article: Historical evolution of language demographics in Quebec
Evolution of the language populations in Quebec
Language / Year 1951 1961 1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001
French 82.5% 81.2% 80.7% 80.0% 82.4% 82.9% 82.1% 80.9% 81.2%
English 13.8% 13.3% 13.1% 12.8% 11.0% 10.3% 9.6% 8.3% 8.0%
Other 3.7% 5.6% 6.2% 7.2% 6.6% 6.8% 8.3% 10.7% 10.0%
French and English - - - - - - - - 0.8%

[edit] Prospects

[edit] Legislation

Main articles: Language policy of Quebec and Language policy of Canada

There are two sets of language laws in Quebec, which overlap and in various areas conflict or compete with each other: the laws passed by the Parliament of Canada and the laws passed by the Parliament of Quebec.


The federal language law and regulations seek to make it possible for all Canadian anglophone and francophone citizens to obtain services in the language of their choice from the federal government. Ottawa promotes the adoption of bilingualism by the population and especially among the employees in the public service.

In contrast, the Quebec language law and regulations try to promote French as the common public language of all Quebecers, while respecting the constitutional rights of its anglophone minority. The Quebec legislation promotes the adoption and the use of French to counteract the trend towards the anglicization of the population of Quebec.

[edit] Federal

[edit] Linguistic rights

[edit] Bilingualism

[edit] Provincial

[edit] Linguistic rights

[edit] Francization

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

In English

In French

[edit] External links

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