Shalom Québec: Reappraising the Role of Language in the Integration of Jewish Communities in Montréal

Language has been emphasized as a dominant factor in the construction of the Québécois identity, prioritized in policies such as the Quebec intercultural model of integration. Accordingly, literature on Quebec interculturalism has attributed an overwhelming prominence towards the role of common language as a dominant facilitator of integration; however, empirical research on the subject has been lacking. To evaluate the effects and limitations of the linguistic factor in facilitating integration, the author undertakes a comparison between Anglophone Ashkenazi Jews and Francophone Sephardic Jews. Using a multi-facetted and multifarious definition of integration sensitive to its varied types and forms, the author's evaluation of 'disaggregated integration' patterns between Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews and the Quebec mainstream indicates that French as a primary language is not a dominant 'trump card' in determining levels of integration across all categories and dimensions. Instead, he found that both Jewish groups integrate in different ways and with varying degrees of success depending on the indicator observed. The author concludes that these results arouse not only a re-examination of the influence and limitations of common language as a facilitator of integration, but also a review of the emphasis placed on language in the Quebec model.

Policy inAction: Diversity, Politics and Policy Dynamics in the Contemporary Period

Vol. 1

98-129

2011-2012

en