Post-secondary education plays a major role in francophone immigration as it does in immigration in general.
Earlier in my presentation, I referred to Canada's International Education Strategy. On page 10, this document states that: “According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, within the next decade, immigration is expected to account for 100% of net growth in the workforce, up from 75% today.”
Let's have a look at what happens with Express Entry. Already, when the first draw was held, people who were already in Canada were the first to be extracted from the pool. This shows that these were people who had Canadian experience, which is a major asset in the selection; there were people who knew the language, which is also a major selection asset. And, most of all, they had received a Canadian education, so no comparison was necessary. Education thus plays a major role.
My sixth recommendation is to include a francophone component in Canada's International Education Strategy, which currently focuses on six priority markets: Brazil, China, India, Mexico, North Africa and the Middle East, and Vietnam. We feel that this is an important means of strengthening francophone immigration, especially since Canada's International Education Strategy aims to increase and even double the number of international students, which will increase from 239,000 to 450,000 by 2022.