French and values tests not the way to integrate newcomers, Quebec immigrants say

Newcomers to Quebec and their advocates say thepremier-designate is taking the wrong approach to integrating immigrants, afterFranoisLegaultsaid he will proceed next year withCoalition AvenirQubec'splan to cut immigration levels by20 per cent.

At his first news conference as incoming premier, Legault confirmed Tuesday that his government will go ahead with the Coalition Avenir Qubec'simmigration program, including its plan to subject recent immigrants to French-language and values tests.

• Legault would usenotwithstanding clause to ban hijabs from civil service

Christian Nana, an immigrant from Cameroon, saidLegault's proposed testscould frighten peopleconsidering moving to Quebec.

"The French tests are already there," Nanasaid, suggesting those who don't pass will leave the province for English-speaking provinces regardless of government policy.

Legault said throughout the campaign that those who do not pass those tests would have to leave Quebec, though he was vague about how a CAQ governmentwould enforce that.

Quebec admitted a little over 50,000 immigrants last year, a figure which includes those who came to the province through refugee and family reunification programs administered by the federal government.

Legaultsaid he would cut that number to 40,000 and take steps to ensure more new arrivals learn French andfind jobs.According to a 2017 Statistics Canada report, 80.5 per cent of immigrants in Quebec said they areable to conduct a conversation in French.

French immersion versusFrench test

Luis Miguel Cristancho says that while there are problems with the integration of immigrants, the way Legault believes those problems can be solved is all wrong.

"It's creating more division," said Cristanchoof the CAQprogram.

Cristancho runsBienvenue Notre-Dame-de-Grce, a non-profit agency that helps newcomers integrate into the western Montreal neighbourhood.

He noted that once immigrants pass a French-language test, they can go back to living and working in their own language.

"What we want to see is people having opportunities to work in French and having proper support in order to succeed," he said.

'It's a diverse country'

Legaultalso said Tuesday he would invoke the Constitution's notwithstanding clause toprevent those in positions of authority from wearing religious symbolssuch as turbans andhijabs.

The CAQwants topass a secular charter that would go further than the Quebec Liberals' religious neutrality law, which is already being challenged in the courts.

Shahad Salman, a lawyer and human rights advocate, said such a law will limit the capacity of religious minorities "to be fully active in society."

"Recent history is really repeating itself," she said, referring to the charter proposed by the Parti Qubcois in 2013.

Perrine Dhenin, ahijab-wearing volunteer French teacher at Bienvenue NDG, challenges the CAQ's assumption that many immigrants have values that are somehow regressive or incompatible with those of most Quebecers.

"It's a diverse country.Perhaps that scares some people," said Dhenin, who moved from Paris with her husband in January 2016.

"Everything that is happening in Franceregarding secularism the veil, the burka:we're increasingly hearing the same thing here."

France has banned the hijab, which covers the hair, in elementary and high schools, and has banned the burka, which covers the full face and body, from the public entirely.

Dhenin says it's wrong to assume Muslim women who wear a religious veil are forced into the practice, and bans on outward religious symbolsfurther isolate these women and prevent them from entering the workforce something newcomers are eager to do, she insists.

The students she teaches at the centreare enthusiastic,which helps them progress quickly, Dheninsays.

Cristanchosaid Legault needs to understand what motivates immigrants to come to Quebec.

"We come here because we recognize that it's a better place, a better quality of life," he said.

"We don't come here to set up ghettos or something like that. We want to really succeed and be accepted."

With files from Sudha Krishnan, Julia Page and CBCMontreal's Daybreak