Measures for immigrants greeted cautiously by advocacy group

The Centre for Research and Race Relations (CRARR), is guardedly optimistic about announcements by the provincial Ministry of Immigration and Cultural Communities on measures to help newly landed immigrants better integrate into Quebec.

"At least there is one party that talks about addressing these issues," said the minority advocacy rights group's executive director, Fo Niemi.

The announcements were lumped together as a global strategy at a news conference Wednesday by Minister Yolande James, who is also the MNA for Nelligan.

"Each human being has the right to the same chances. Diversity is an added value for Quebec. More than ever, immigrants will be crucial to Quebec's development in order to face the lack of manpower," James declared.

According to government documents, the program focuses specifically on French-language education, teaching French, and providing employment resources, even before immigrants arrive to the province.

Free French courses are expected to be made available to immigrants, as well as access to online courses. Quebec common values are to be presented to them, and employers are to be assisted by Ministry representatives in looking for employees.

Niemi was enthusiastic about the ministry's willingness to admit there were issues to address, but he pointed out a couple of problems with the strategy. "There will be no annual review," he said, noting the Ministry has not called on any accountability measures of how well the plan is to be implemented down the line.

Niemi also said parts of the plan remain vague. Though government documents do note, for example, that police ethics committees should do more to teach officers about the dangers of racial profiling, no definition of 'racial profiling' is provided. "Every police department can adopt a different definition of racial profiling," he said.

The definition of Quebec's "common values" remains equally vague, he said.

Fradette presented the global action strategy as an addition to measures announced by the Ministry last March, and said he was confident of its success. "There is a similar existing employment program called PRIIME," he mentioned as a recent example of the Ministry's success. Run jointly by the Ministry and Emploi-Québec, the program helps find short-term employment for immigrants and visible minorities, for a maximum length of 30 weeks. Three months after the end of their employment term, the government checks up on their progress. "Eighty per cent of them find permanent employment," Fradette said.