Anglophone and Francophone Desire to Stay or Leave Quebec : A Study of Quebec-Born Undergraduates in Montreal

Using the ethnolinguistic vitality and acculturation frameworks, the authors examine economic prospects and linguistic tensions as push/pull factors accounting for the willingness of Anglophones and Francophones to stay in Quebec or leave for the rest of Canada 40 years after the adoption of the Charter of the French Language. Questionnaires were completed by Quebec Francophone (n=234) students attending the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and Quebec Anglophone (n=205) undergraduates attending McGill University. Results showed that the Anglophone students were more willing to leave Quebec for the ROC than were Francophone undergraduates. For the Francophone students, willingness to move to a province outside Quebec was predicted mainly by pull factors including seeking better economic prospects and joining a partner. The Anglophones' willingness to leave Quebec was predicted by the following push factors : avoiding linguistic tensions, being victims of collective discrimination, perceiving English-French relations as zero-sum, and endorsing the separation acculturation orientation. Predictors of the Anglophones' willingness to stay in Quebec included perceiving positive economic prospects in Quebec and endorsing the integration acculturation orientation. An opinion survey completed only by the Anglophone students helps further account for their desire to stay or leave Quebec. The authors conclude that the results of their questionnaires show the importance of language tensions as a factor predicting willingness of Quebec-born Anglophones to leave their province of origin for the rest of Canada.

La Charte : La loi 101 et les Québécois d’expression anglaise / The Charter : Bill 101 and English-Speaking Quebec

Québec

Presses de l’Université Laval

2021

85-124

en

978-2-7637-5436-9