What is driving young anglophones out of Quebec?

They may not be leaving Quebec by the numbers they were in the late 70s and early 80s, but young English speakers are still leaving, even though they're more bilingual than ever. That's according to a new study out of Concordia University. Simon-Pierre Lacasse is a history professor and co-author of the study. Hello there, and thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. So the study is called Understanding Youth Out-Migration Among English-Speaking Quebecers, And you looked at about 60 years of research on the topic. So what did you find? What is the main reason young English speakers are still leaving Quebec? So there's one consistent factor across 60 years or so of research. And it's really the main factor is economic opportunity and labor market integration questions. This is really the main thing that will drive young English speakers to leave Quebec. And, you know, when you compare that to young French speakers, why are they not leaving then in the same numbers? While, you know, there are some pull factors that attract Francophones and Anglophones to go out and work in Ontario or to go in Alberta, there are also some push factors that drive English speakers to want to leave Quebec society. And those, of course, do not impact Francophones at all in the same way. We're, of course, talking about linguistic identity and a challenge that some young English speakers feel in terms of how they can belong to Quebec society. It was true in the 1970s when bilingualism was much lower among English speakers in Quebec. But it's also true today, even though bilingualism is extremely high within the young English-speaking communities. So part of it is that they actually don't feel welcome or they don't feel included in Quebec society or in the workplace, for that matter? Well, yes, at least it is something that many report. You know, there is some data to suggest that almost 40% of English speakers in Quebec experience feeling discrimination based on language. And this is something that is true for all group ages as well. So there's a variety of experiences. You know, we hear very positive experiences of working in French-speaking environments, but also some negative ones where people feel like they experience a certain, they experience accent bias in which, you know, the fact that they sound, that they don't sound native in their French is something that will influence their outcomes on the job market. I mean, over the last eight years with the CAQ government, some English speakers felt targeted and less included. Would this have an impact on out-migration and the possibility of a referendum down the road? Are these all factors where we could see more English-speaking Quebecers leaving the province? So it is still early to tell because much of the data to measure with precision movements of populations between provinces is data that we obtained through the Canadian census. And the data from the 2021 census, which was collected in the past spring, is only going to be available next fall. So we'll see really what might have been the impact of Bill 96 and Bill 40, for instance, which are two important pieces of legislation which have impacted English-speaking communities in Quebec. So it is too early to tell. And we want to be careful in drawing, you know, in suggesting that there would be a direct correlation with a Parti Québécois government. Certainly the early 1980s have seen a large wave of English speakers leaving, but in a context of referendum in the 1990s, the impact was not nearly as strong. And now, you know, with the level of bilingualism again amongst young English speaker, there is a very high level of integration. So all of these dynamics coexist right now, and there are many experiences out there. They're not all negative, that's to say. It's a really interesting study. I appreciate you coming on and talking about it with us. Thank you so much for having me.