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A new publicity campaign to emphasize the importance of immigrants to Quebec has been launched by the Ministry of Immigration and Cultural Communities.
Visible throughout Quebec, the campaign will appear on television, on the Internet, in newspapers, and on posters in various places, including every arena in the province, the Ministry says. The ads drop the "i" from a series of words such as family, diploma, society, solidarity and diversity, followed by the phrase, "The future of Quebec can not be written without immigration." The campaign also includes presentations at select high schools in Montreal by young adults who once immigrated to Canada with their families and who are now working in fields such as architecture, journalism, and the culinary arts.
"It will inform people as to what the reality of immigration is," said Yolande James, Minister of Immigration and Cultural Communities. She said Quebec is founded upon immigration and is enriched by its population's diversity. This campaign is essential, she said, and will allow for more of an openess on the part of Quebecois communities toward immigrants.
"Our politic of immigration is based on a principle of reciprocity," James also said, emphasizing the responsibility of both immigrants and all Quebec citizens to ensure immigration experiences are successful.
Bouchard-Taylor Commission recommendation
The campaign was recommended by the final report of the Bouchard-Taylor Commission, James said.
The campaign was formally launched on the first day of Quebec's Intercultural Week, at an event for media and the Ministry's partners, held Monday, September 28 at the Université du Québec à Montréal.
Emphasis was put on encouraging employers to extend professional opportunities to immigrants, and on attracting immigration to Quebec.
"These kinds of events," said Vathany Srikandarajah, a Park Extension resident and member of the Himalaya Seniors of Quebec (HSQ), "must pass through immigrants to reach them somehow."
"They have to go to NDG or Park Ex," said another member of the HSQ and Park Extension resident, Nizam Uddim, in reference to the launch, adding that he estimated the audience was eighty percent french-speaking Quebecois.
Partners of the ministry, James said, were invited to the launch so they would be able to reach common people.
"They are showing the Quebec community that immigration is good for Quebec," said Elisabeth Dembil, executive director of Carrefour de Liaison et d'Aide Multi-ethnique, an organization in Park Extension that helps new immigrants find work and housing. Dembil said she was glad to see the province showcasing immigrants who have been professionally successful. "It's a first," Dembil said.
One of the professionals who will be speaking at Montreal high schools is Tudor Radulescu - who emigrated from Romania 25 years ago and is now an architect. He once had a job in Park Extension and played basketball in the neighbourhood. Radulscu said coming to Quebec as a child, it was easier to make friends. But it's harder for adults, he said. "It's a lot harder to make real friends, and professionally it can be very hard.
This campaign would bring employers awareness of the workforce that's out there, Radulescu said. "In order to incorporate immigrants into this society," Radulscu said, "they have to be brought to the forefront. The way to do it is to include them and to make them feel at home here."
The report of Quebec's Bouchard-Taylor Commission, released in 2008, concluded that Quebec "must seek to reach a consensus against a backdrop of growing diversity, renew the social bond, accommodate difference by combating discrimination, and promote an identity, a culture and a memory without creating either exclusion or division." It also concluded that Quebec must solve the problems of poverty, underemployment and inequality.
The Ministry of Immigration and Cultural Communities reports that over the next four years 700,000 jobs will need to be fulfilled, in fields such as welding, masonry and healthcare.
It reports immigration targets of 47,400 for 2009 and 52, 400 for 2010, and also says there is a need replace retiring workers in Quebec and ensure the growth of Quebec's industries.
The ministry is now using a new slogan: "L'immigration, c'est bienvenue!"
The full campaign will run up to three months at an estimated $750,000.