GND wants people to talk positively about immigration

Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, spokesperson for Québec solidaire and MP for Gouin.

Québec solidaire (QS) spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois criticizes Parti Québécois (PQ) leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon and Premier François Legault for talking about immigration “often as d’ a problem”.

The QS spokesperson was reacting to the recent statement by the leader of the PQ, who wanted a sustainable immigration model to be adopted by Quebec in order to avoid political extremes such as in Hungary, France or England.

“After François Legault and the risks of 'violence', Paul St-Pierre Plamondon adds: our immigration model could cause the 'rise of extremes'”, wrote Mr. Nadeau-Dubois on Facebook on January 26.

Are we to understand that the QS spokesperson puts the comments of François Legault and Paul St-Pierre Plamondon on immigration in the same basket?

“The comments of Mr. Plamondon are not exactly the same as those of Mr. Legault, recognizes Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, in an interview with Métro. But what brings them together is a certain way of talking about migrants, often as a problem.”

Rather, he would like us to talk positively about immigration.

Acceptance capacity

In his publication, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois criticizes the two politicians for pulling a figure out of their hats on the subject of reception capacities, “without ever justifying it”.

Reacting to this criticism, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon replied that the threshold of 35,000 immigrants is based on the average of the 1990s until 2003, a period when French was progressing in Quebec and even in Montreal, he maintains. /p>

“It was in 2004 that the French curve began to decline, and it has never stopped declining since,” reads the PQ leader's page.

“I think that the decline of French is explained by several reasons and to bring it back only to the field of immigration, I think it is a mistake”, indicates the spokesperson of QS, giving the example of the “worrying” failure rates of the French test in secondary school.

On the other hand, he admits that immigration policies have an impact on the evolution of French. “No one denies that it's part of the debate, but I think it's simplistic to reduce it to immigration only.”

This threshold does not take into account temporary immigration, recalls- he. “So we actually welcome a lot more than 50,000 people a year.”

The key to a successful immigration policy, for Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, is to give permanent residence to those people who are already on Quebec territory.

The European example

As for Paul St-Pierre Plamondon's remarks that sustainable immigration would make it possible to avoid the political extremes that we observe in Europe, the QS spokesperson wrote on his page that ” moderate parties [in Europe] have tried to curb the rise of xenophobic parties by copying their rhetoric. They didn't make it. On the contrary, they have rather normalized the extremes.”

On the other hand, there seem to be exceptions, such as Denmark. For twenty years, this country has pursued a strict policy on immigration, initiated by the right in 2001 and continued by the left in the name of the defense of the welfare state. Unlike France, where there is a rise of Marine Le Pen's National Rally, voting for the Danish People's Party – a right-wing populist party – has plummeted in Denmark. It was just 2.6% in 2022, six points lower than in the previous election.

“I am not a specialist in Danish politics. What I see is that in Europe, in general, anti-immigration discourse has been reinforced in recent years,” maintains the politician.

According to Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, even if we fix a problem like Roxham Road, extreme and xenophobic discourse will continue to exist.

Doing our part

According to the most recent figures from the Government of Canada, more than 60% of asylum applications in the country are made in Quebec, which is almost three times its demographic weight in Canada, which is now less than 23%.

Isn't that legitimate to ask the other provinces to do their part regarding asylum seekers?

On this issue, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois considers that the federal government must assume its responsibilities and do more, “particularly in terms of supporting organizations that help and welcome these people.”