L'exode de la communauté anglo-québécoise : la nécessaire responsabilisation

Type of resource
Authors/collaborators
Title
L'exode de la communauté anglo-québécoise : la nécessaire responsabilisation
Abstract
The authors claim to "demystify" the migratory habits of Anglo-Quebecers, usually linked to Quebec's threat to separate from Canada, and propose the "real" reason English Quebecers were leaving or threatening to leave the province. Their article was written post-the 1980 referendum and three years before the 1995 referendum. The authors' argument is that since the mid-nineteenth century, English Quebecers were leaving Quebec, and the exodus in the 1980s and early 1990s was just a continuation of this pattern. The causes of this recent (circa 1990) exodus, according to the authors, were: an extremely high level of pan-continental linguistic mobility, increasingly limited job prospects for all Quebecers, the uncertainty linked to the political situation, a feeling of underdeveloped belonging, the restructuring of the economy, the shift in economic activity towards the interior of the continent since the end of the nineteenth century, the tertiarization of the Quebec economy causing a growing number of jobs to require bilingualism (46 percent of Anglo-Quebecers were unilingual in 1990), an education system whose staff largely came from outside Quebec and which very poorly prepared young English speakers to function in an increasingly French Quebec, some difficulty in accepting increasing francization of their environment, a “feeling” of rejection skilfully fostered by the leadership of the English-speaking community, and the deep fear of the consequences of Quebec's sovereignty which would lead to their final political minorization.
Book Title
Répliques aux détracteurs de la souveraineté du Québec
Place
Montréal
Publisher
VLB éditeur
Date
1992
Pages
291-313
Language
fr
ISBN
2-89005-499-3
URL
Citation
Legault, Josée, and Gary Caldwell. “L’exode de la communauté anglo-québécoise : la nécessaire responsabilisation.” In Répliques aux détracteurs de la souveraineté du Québec, edited by Alain-G. Gagnon and François Rocher, 291–313. Montréal: VLB éditeur, 1992. http://classiques.uqac.ca/contemporains/caldwell_gary/exode_communaute_anglo_quebecoise/exode_texte.html.
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