Interprovincial migration of French-speaking immigrants outside Quebec

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French-speaking immigrants outside Quebec have a higher propensity to migrate between provinces

In Canada, internal migration trends show that French-speaking immigrants outside Quebec are more likely to move between regions than their immigrant and native-born counterparts. The 2011 National Household Survey (NHS) indicates that the interprovincial migration rate of French-speaking immigrants was higher than the rate of any other population outside Quebec, with roughly 92 per thousand French-speaking immigrants moving across provinces. In 2011, their internal migration rate was a third higher than the rate of francophones born in Canada, and roughly double the rate of immigrant and native-born non-francophones.

Characteristics of French-speaking immigrants outside Quebec who migrate within Canada

French-speaking immigrants tend to migrate internally at older ages than Canadian-born francophones, and immigrant and native-born non-francophones. For French-speaking immigrants, the highest rates of interprovincial migration are among those between the ages of 30 and 34, whereas for both Canadian-born francophones and non-francophones, the highest rates are for those aged 25 to 29. Among other immigrants, young children are most likely to migrate between provinces, followed by the 25-29 age group.

Of the French-speaking immigrant population outside Quebec, French only FOLS immigrants have a higher propensity to migrate between provinces than French-English FOLS immigrants. Since 1991, the interprovincial migration rates of French FOLS immigrants have been substantially higher, sometimes reaching double the rate of French-English FOLS immigrants. However, in recent years, the difference between the migration intensities of these two groups has narrowed, with the interprovincial migration rate of French FOLS and French-English FOLS outside Quebec being roughly 100 per thousand and 80 per thousand in 2011, respectively.

The migratory patterns of French-speaking immigrants outside Quebec are similar to those of Canadian-born francophones, with interprovincial migrants from both these groups mainly choosing Quebec as their region of destination. Between 2006 and 2011, 58.6% of French-speaking immigrants who migrated between provinces moved to settle in Quebec, while the share was slightly lower among native-born francophones, at 56.7%. However, the proportion of French-speaking immigrants migrating to Quebec from other Canadian regions has decreased by almost 10% since 2006, when the share was 67.5%.

Interprovincial migration of French-speaking immigrants favours Canada outside Quebec

Unlike French-speaking immigrants outside Quebec, who have the highest rates of interprovincial migration, French-speaking immigrants living in Quebec are much less likely to migrate between provinces in Canada. In 2011, only 12 out of every 1000 French-speaking immigrants in Quebec moved to live outside the province, whereas both native-born and immigrant non-francophones had substantially higher rates of interprovincial migration. Thus, French-speaking immigrants in Canada have opposite trends of interprovincial migration depending on whether they live within Quebec or outside the province.

Although the relative proportion of French-speaking immigrants who migrate from the rest of Canada to Quebec is much larger than the share within Quebec that leaves for other provinces, the overall number of immigrants leaving Quebec remains larger than the flow migrating to Quebec because French-speaking immigrants outside Quebec comprise a relatively small population (Chart 1). Since 1986, the net migration of French-speaking immigrants has been positive for Canada excluding Quebec, with the highest net inflow occurring between 1996 and 2001, when provinces outside Quebec gained about 4,000 internal French-speaking immigrants. Thus, the migratory exchanges of French-speaking immigrants between Quebec and the rest of Canada favour the rest of Canada (Chart 1).

French-speaking immigrants living outside Quebec who have migrated between provinces in Canada mostly come from 5 large Canadian cities: Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa-Gatineau, Toronto, and Vancouver. The largest proportion comes from Montreal, accounting for 35.0% or more of the French-speaking immigrant population that migrated between 2006 and 2011 in each major Canadian region outside Quebec (Atlantic, Ontario, Prairies, Alberta and British Columbia). Migrants from Montreal account for the largest proportion of French-speaking immigrants migrating internally in Ontario, where they comprised more than 60.0% of all French-speaking immigrants who settled in Ontario between 2006 and 2011.

Chart 1: Migration of French-speaking immigrants between Quebec and the rest of Canada, 1991-2011

Text version: Chart 1: Migration of French-speaking immigrants between Quebec and the rest of Canada, 1991-2011

Chart 1: Migration of French-speaking immigrants between Quebec and the rest of Canada, 1991-2011

	French-speaking immigrants migrating from Quebec to the rest of Canada	French-speaking immigrants migrating from the rest of Canada to Quebec	Net migration to the rest of Canada
1991	2,785	2,425	360
1996	4,795	2,065	2,735
2001	6,495	2,445	4,055
2006	5,105	3,680	1,425
2011	6,570	3,590	2,980

FOLS = Population of groups defined according to first official language spoken.
The category ‘FOLS other’ includes FOLS groups ‘English’ and ‘neither English nor French’.
Source: Statistics Canada, 1991-2006 Censuses, National Household Survey, 2011.

Source: Houle, R., Pereira, D., & Corbeil, J. P. (2014). Statistical Portrait of the French-speaking Immigrant Population Outside Quebec (1991-2011). Ottawa: CIC.