Thank you very much, Howard.
It was in 2007, in Toronto, after the Strategic Plan had been published, that the Metropolis Project first organized a session on Francophone immigration to minority communities. The purposes of that event were to take stock of the research being done and to allow federal government representatives to articulate their research needs directly to researchers and community partners. Only some 40 persons attended; fewer than half of them were researchers studying these issues. From that session, we learned that economic integration is the first step toward retaining French-speaking immigrants but that, outside Quebec, people need to speak English if they want to find work. As a result, French-language settlement organizations are called on not only to provide assistance with English-language economic integration, but also to develop Francophone networks.
The success of the first pre-conference session and the release of the Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality encouraged us to plan a second pre-conference session in 2008 in Moncton. The purpose of that event was to continue the discussion about the challenges of social integration by inviting a number of community organizations and immigrants to share their on-the-ground experiences. The main issues raised had to do with Francophone identity in Canada and immigrants' place within that identity, and with awareness-raising to be done in host communities.
The third pre-conference session, held in 2009 in Calgary, attracted over 100 participants, one third of whom were researchers. Participants engaged at length in discussions of barriers to integration. The concept emerged of dual or even triple minority status: Francophone immigrants in a majority Anglophone environment, members of a visible minority and, in many cases, refugees having had traumatic experiences prior to the immigration process.
Researchers and community stakeholders agree that in Francophone minority communities, whether rural or urban, the school is identified as an agent of community liaison that is vital in integrating children and parents as well. Some schools go so far as to offer courses for parents in English as a second language, in addition to Francization courses, to ensure that the family stays in the French-speaking community.
The fourth pre-conference session was held in 2010, recently, in Montreal, with over 180 persons in attendance. Participants comprised roughly equal numbers of researchers, community representatives and federal, provincial and territorial decision-makers. We invited Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Ministerial Conference on the Canadian Francophonie, and the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada to report not only on progress made, but also on persistent challenges in addressing these issues. For example, a shared definition of “Francophone community”, building a sense of belonging to the Canadian Francophonie as a whole, and not just to a particular French-speaking community, greater clarity about municipalities' role, and stronger partnerships with the private sector were areas that revealed both challenges and concrete objectives for work to be done.
On that occasion, we developed the best practices manual. This manual, which highlights programs and projects that promote Francophone immigration to minority communities, was designed as a tool for host communities to use, particularly in their efforts to retain newcomers. As well, the current research compendium, which contains 16 recent research capsules, was designed as a tool to provide decision-makers with information on emerging issues in this regard. These two publications have already been sent to members of the Standing Committee on Official Languages. Today, we have brought for your attention an issue of the journal entitled Canadian Issues on Immigration and Diversity in Francophone Minority Communities. This issue was produced in 2008 by the Metropolis Project in cooperation with the Association for Canadian Studies. We would also be pleased to share with you a list of researchers in the Metropolis network who are studying these issues, their field of expertise and their contact information, if you wish to invite them to appear before you.
In conclusion, since the Metropolis Project has created a space for in-depth discussions among researchers, decision-makers and community representatives, we have seen increased interest in issues of Francophone immigration to minority communities. Now, more researchers are taking an interest in these issues and devoting research projects to them. We hope that our contribution to this research will be of use to governments and communities in their efforts to promote official language immigration to minority communities. We shall continue to explore these issues on March 23, 2011, in Vancouver, and we hope to be able to follow up on your recommendations.