Quebec’s language policy and economic globalization

Gilles Grenier | University of Ottawa

This article examines the economic situation of language groups in Quebec since the 1970s. Particular attention is paid to the contexts of economic globalization, where English has become the most used world lingua franca, and of immigration now being the major source of population growth. Viewing language as a market where supply and demand determine outcomes, the purpose of Bill 101 was to increase the value and the use of French. The relative economic position of Francophones has improved and they now have better purchasing power and control of the economy. However, the number of Francophones in the population is not expected to increase much and their proportion in the population will drop significantly. Due to immigration, the number and proportion of Allophones will increase, but Anglophones will also benefit since the proportion of immigrants who assimilate to English is larger than the proportion of Anglophones in the population. In the labor market, working in English pays more than working in French for immigrants. In spite of the progresses made by Francophones, the situation of French in Quebec remains a concern. The challenge is to integrate more immigrants into the French-speaking majority.

Keywords: language policy, language market, Quebec, globalization, immigration

Published online: 22 July 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/lplp.00041.gre

References

Auger, Michel C.

(2018) 25 mythes à déboulonner en politique québécoise. Montréal: Les éditions La Presse (198 pages).

Bloom, David E., and Gilles Grenier

(1992a) “Economic Perspectives on Language: The Relative Value of Bilingualism in Canada and the United States,” in James Crawford (editor), Language Loyalties: A Source Book on the Official English Controversy, Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 445–52.

Bloom, David E. and Gilles Grenier

(1992b) “Earnings of the French Minority in Canada and the Spanish Minority in the United States.” In Immigration, Language and Ethnicity: Canada and the United States, edited by B. R. Chiswick. Washington, D.C.: The AEI Press. 373–409

Boulet, Jac-André

(1980) Language and Earning in Montreal, Ottawa: The Economic Council of Canada (135 pages).

Boulet, Jac-André and Laval Lavallée

(1983) L’évolution des disparités linguistiques de revenus de travail au Canada de 1970 à 1980. Ottawa: The Economic Council of Canada (71 pages).

Boulet, Jac-André and André Raynauld

(1977) L’analyse des disparités de revenu suivant l’origine ethnique et la langue sur le marché montréalais en 1961. Ottawa: The Economic Council of Canada, Discussion Paper No. 83 (270 pages).

Bousmah, Ibrahim, Gilles Grenier and David Gray

(2018) Linguistic Distance, Languages of Work and Wages of Immigrants in Montreal. Working Paper 1805E, Department of Economics, University of Ottawa: 1–43.

Castonguay, Charles

(1997) “Tendances de l’assimilation linguistique dans l’ouest de l’île de Montréal et l’ouest de l’Outaouais.” Cahiers québécois de démographie 45: 65–82.

Grenier, Gilles

(2015) “The Value of Language Skills,” IZA World of Labor, Bonn, November (2015): 1–10 (https://wol.iza.org/articles/economic-value-of-language-skills).

Grenier, Gilles and Serge Nadeau

(2016) “English as the Lingua Franca and the Economic Value of Other Languages: the Case of the Language of Work in the Montreal Labor Market.” In Michele Gazzola and Bengt-Arne Wickström, The Economics of Language Policy, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass, chapter 8, 267–312.

Houle, René and Jean-Pierre Corbeil

(2017) Language Projections for Canada: 2011 to 2036. Statistics Canada, Catalogue 89-657-X2017001: 1–132.

Raynauld, André

(1974) La propriété des entreprises au Québec : les années 60; Montréal; PUM 160 p

Raynauld, André, Gérald Marion and Richard Béland

(1966) La répartition des revenus selon les groupes ethniques au Canada, Ottawa, rapport de recherche, Commission royale d’enquête sur le bilinguisme et le biculturalisme, 4 unpublished volumes

Raynauld, André and Gérald Marion

(1972) “Une analyse économique de la disparité interethnique des revenus.” Revue économique, 23(1): 1–19.

Shapiro, Daniel M. and Morton Stelcner

(1997) “Language and Earnings in Quebec: Trends over Twenty Years. 1970–1990 ”, Canadian Public Policy / Analyse de politiques 23 (2):115–40.

Termote, Marc

(1999) Perspectives démolinguistiques du Québec et de la région de Montréal à l’aube du XXIe siècle. Implications pour le français langue d’usage public. Québec: Conseil de la langue française (195 pages).

Vaillancourt, François

(1980) Differences in Earnings by Language Groups in Quebec, 1970: An economic Analysis. Québec: International Center for Research on Bilingualism (232 pages).

(2018) Analyse économique des politiques linguistiques au Québec : 40 ans de Loi 101. 2018S-16 Cahier scientifique, CIRANO, Montréal: 1–32.

Vaillancourt, François, Julien Tousignant, Joelle Chatel-DeRepentigny, and Simon Coutu-Mantha

(2013) “Revenu de travail et rendements des attributs linguistiques au Québec en 2005 et depuis 1970.” Canadian Public Policy – Analyse de Politiques. XXXIX, Supplement: S25–S40.

Vaillancourt, François, and Luc Vaillancourt

(2005) La propriété des employeurs au Québec en 2003 selon le groupe d’appartenance linguistique. Conseil supérieur de la langue française (65 pages).

Cited by

Cited by other publications

Ridala, Svetlana

2020. Language skills and labour market returns. Language Problems and Language Planning

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 05 january 2021. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.