Immigration: Francophones come up against bureaucratic delays

At a time when immigration is part of the electoral debates, French-speaking immigrants come up against a slow bureaucracy despite their rapid integration.

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This is the case of Sarah, who preferred to conceal her surname. Originally from France, she immigrated to Quebec in January 2020 and is still waiting for her work permit. Almost 10 months after being recruited as general manager of a cultural structure, she finally received, on August 29, a document authorizing her to work, which she has already been doing since November 2021.

However, Sarah still has to wait for her work permit. “In this period of time, I have no rights. That is to say, on my payslip, I contribute to everything, but I am entitled to nothing. I do not have the right to the RAMQ”, she explained on the airwaves of Qub Radio, Monday.

Seeing her file go under the pile at the slightest mistake, the woman from France also regrets that she cannot leave the country.

“Without a permit, I cannot return to France to see my family. So it’s been more than two years since I can’t return to France, that I’m blocked because I can’t come back to Canada, ”she said at the microphone of Philippe-Vincent Foisy.

Many in the same situation

Although the Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation et de l’Intégration du Québec (MIFI) offers the possibility of making a simplified application to immigrants who can integrate quickly, they continue to face long delays.

These delays discourage many employees from looking for talent abroad, because they have to juggle the bureaucracy of the MIFI as well as the fear of seeing their employees become discouraged and leave the country, believes David Miljour, Director General of the Pôle de l’économie of the agglomeration of Longueuil.

« In a last general meeting of our organization, we had several social economy companies who told us « our issue is the shortage of staff, we would like the pole to help us in this » », he explained to Qub Radio. However, an international talent search program is not optimal for these small companies, since the bureaucracy is slow.

“At the Department of Immigration, the simplified application should be processed in two months, because these are people who, on the one hand, speak French. On the other hand, they are highly educated in sectors of activity where the shortage of personnel is most striking », added Mr. Miljour, who specified that it is an immigration which is « easy to integrate » and which will « contribute quickly » to Quebec society.