This article, which focuses on the dynamics of the immigration debate in Quebec, is intended as a supplement to “The falling support for immigration and the Marxist approach“. Readers will benefit from reading both articles together.
The immigration debate regularly makes headlines in Quebec.
The Parti Québécois, which leads the polls, has made immigration one of its main campaign issues. They promise to reduce immigration to relieve pressure on public services, tackle the housing crisis, and slow the decline of the French language.
The CAQ has historically made a lot of noise about this issue. But it now finds itself between a rock and a hard place, having presided over a significant increase in immigration despite its promise to “take in fewer but take care of them.” Even the Quebec Liberal Party claims that Quebec’s “integration capacity” has been exceeded.
What should be the communist position on this issue?
‘Integration capacity’
Immigration has indeed increased significantly in recent years, particularly temporary immigration. While there were 160,000 temporary immigrants in Quebec in 2018, there are now 560,000. They represent around six per cent of Quebec’s population.
The expression that probably comes up most often in the PQ and CAQ’s discourse on this subject is the famous “integration capacity” (“capacité d’accueil”), which they claim has been exceeded.
The housing crisis is said to be overwhelming proof of this. After denying the crisis for years, premier François Legault now claims that its existence is “100 per cent” due to immigration! The PQ also claims that the current housing crisis is mainly the result of “demand far exceeding supply” following the increase in immigration.
In general, the Parti Québécois relies on the 2024 National Bank of Canada special report, which states that Canada is caught in a “demographic trap”: the economy is not growing fast enough to absorb population growth. The PQ echoes this idea in its document on immigration, referring to a record “supply deficit” in housing.
But how did we get here?
The study by the Fraser Institute cited in our main article is even more damning for Quebec. It shows that between 1972 and 1981, there were an average of 58,000 housing starts per year in Quebec, a figure that exceeded annual population growth. The number of housing starts exceeded population growth until 1986.
But today, despite increased labour productivity over time and a larger population, the annual number of housing starts has declined, even in absolute terms. Since 2007 (well before the increase in immigration), housing starts have consistently fallen short of population growth.
Moreover, according to a spokesperson for FRAPRU, a tenant advocacy organization, there would be 80,000 more social housing units in Quebec if the federal government were to fund projects at the same level as it did in the 1980s—but instead, funding was ended in 1994. Curiously, Legault and PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who are so fond of blaming Ottawa, say nothing about this part of the equation.
Added to the drastic decline in construction is speculation. In Montreal alone, where the overwhelming majority of immigrants settle, 10,000 units are left vacant and used for speculation.
The housing crisis existed long before the rise in immigration. The blame lies primarily with governments at all levels that do not invest in social housing, with developers who do not build unless they can make a hefty profit, and with speculators who prefer to leave homes empty if it helps them raise prices.
The PQ also claims that the rise in immigration is putting “unsustainable pressure” on public services.
On this point, the party would do well to take a look in the mirror. Who weakened public services? Who closed hospitals and forced tens of thousands of nurses into retirement in the 1990s? Who cut education spending by a billion dollars in the name of “zero deficit” during those same years?
Everyone knows full well that public services were in tatters long before the increase in immigration. Massive reinvestment in public services is needed, as is a large-scale social housing construction program. There is nothing like this in the CAQ, PQ or Liberal platforms. The rich would never want to contribute to this anyway—they fight against any capital gains tax or wealth tax.
In reality, arguments about “capacity” divert attention from the fact that it is the austerity of recent decades, the greed of real estate developers, and the current inability of the capitalist system to provide services that explain the current crisis.
We have everything we need to provide housing for all and to build robust public services. The only obstacle is a system where the logic of profit takes precedence over everything else.
The French language
The debate on immigration is closely linked to the issue of the French language. Here too, the PQ and the CAQ claim that the influx of immigrants is putting it at risk.
For the CAQ, this is the height of hypocrisy. While Legault claims to be concerned about French, his government has cut French classes for immigrants! In the fall of 2024, the party imposed budget restrictions on school service centers, forcing them to eliminate teaching positions and send immigrants home.
The PQ, for its part, points out that French language training of immigrants is unsustainable for the Quebec government. It bases this on a report by the French Language Commissioner, which states that it would require investments of $10.6-$12.9 billion.
However, the PQ does not explain what lies behind this figure. The report explains:
“Approximately 21% of these costs would be associated with the training itself, while 79% would be opportunity costs that would have to be borne by businesses, universities, and governments, or by the immigrants themselves.”
In plain language, the overwhelming majority of the amount referred to as “investment” is what an immigrant would not earn in wages in order to devote themselves to learning French.
There is a solution to this problem. The PQ itself talks about multinationals taking advantage of the cheap labour provided by temporary immigration; French language courses should be included in job training and paid for by these wealthy companies.
But we can expect bosses to refuse to dig into their pockets so that their employees can learn the language required to work, and the PQ has no intention of forcing them to pay either.
Learning French thus comes up against the limits imposed by private property. With the nationalization of these large companies, we would have the resources to massively fund public services, hire more teachers, and train hundreds of thousands of people who are eager to learn and integrate if given the means to do so.
Ottawa vs. Quebec?
The PQ also claims that Canada imposes “delusional” immigration thresholds on Quebec. With independence, Quebec could put an end to these “abuses.” It claims that the CAQ has been complicit in the rise of immigration and is speaking out of both sides of its mouth on this issue.
This argument deserves attention because, in fact, the CAQ has contributed to the increase in immigration, despite suggesting they would do the opposite. We remember Legault’s statement that receiving 50,000 people per year would be “suicidal” for Quebec.
Immigration is indeed a shared responsibility between Quebec and the federal government, and the CAQ has some control over the thresholds. Why is immigration increasing despite the CAQ’s statements to the contrary?
Because capitalist pressure prevails. Employers across the country have become completely addicted to the cheap labour provided by temporary foreign workers (TFW). Universities, meanwhile, have until recently been living off international students, who pay exorbitant tuition fees and have thus served as a cash cow to compensate for the lack of public funding. The drastic reduction in the number of student visas this year is currently causing a budget crisis for the country’s universities.
Employers are exerting enormous pressure to maintain their access to cheap labour. Mark Carney even claimed that temporary foreign workers were the main issue raised by businessmen, second only to tariffs. It is this pressure that forced the CAQ to give in, not federalism and Ottawa. In 2023, the president of the Quebec Council of Employers welcomed the fact that the CAQ had “heard the call of the business community” and had agreed to renege on its promise to lower immigration thresholds.
This is one of the main contradictions of immigration. On the one hand, politicians use this issue to boost their support, promising to lower immigration thresholds to supposedly solve our housing and social services problems.
But on the other, the capitalists themselves constantly demand more immigration to fuel their insatiable thirst for profits. This contradiction would still exist with the PQ in power, and they would have the same difficulty as the CAQ in implementing their immigration reduction measures, whether Quebec is independent or not.
When the PQ or the CAQ attack Ottawa, they divert attention from the real problem. Cheap labour, underfunding of universities, lack of housing —all these problems boil down to one thing: a broken economic system, capitalism.
Class approach
The increase in immigration comes at a time of deepening social crisis. Workers can see for themselves every day overworked teachers, exhausted nurses, and spiraling housing costs.
In this context, when the CAQ and the PQ draw a direct link between immigration and these ills, they manage to connect with the real anxieties of a working class that is being squeezed like a lemon.
Although they are completely wrong, they succeed because the left has no satisfactory answer.
Québec solidaire, in particular, often limits itself to denouncing the PQ from an abstract moral standpoint. For example, their spokesperson on immigration, Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, recently stated that in the face of “intolerant rhetoric,” we must “convey messages of openness, inclusion, and kindness.”
This moralizing does absolutely nothing to convince workers who are concerned about housing and public services. It only adds fuel to the fire for the PQ and the CAQ, who then pose as poor victims unfairly accused of intolerance.
It would also be wrong to interpret the concerns of ordinary people as widespread racism toward immigrants. In fact, 85 per cent of Quebecers believe that immigrants are just as likely to be “good citizens” as those born here. And when asked why they think there is too much immigration, the “threat” to culture ranks far behind concerns about housing, unemployment, public finances, etc.
To counter the policies of the PQ and the CAQ, mere calls to be “inclusive” accomplish nothing.
Instead, we must explain that the capitalist system is at the root of the problems of the entire working class, both immigrants and those born here—and propose a socialist solution.
The fact that more houses were built in the 1970s with fewer workers and less technology is frankly astounding. It is an irrefutable condemnation of the current economic system, which is incapable of planning anything or making use of the resources that exist.
The PQ and other capitalist parties accept the size of the services-and-housing pie, wonder how to divide it up, and conclude that there are too many mouths to feed. But we must not accept what a decrepit system offers us.
We have the labour, knowledge, and wealth to build thousands of good homes and rebuild public services without having to turn away a single immigrant. This potential exists, but it is being wasted. We must take away the capitalists’ right to make all the decisions for us.
Through nationalization and democratic control of large corporations, real estate developers, and banks, we will have the means to implement a broad plan for the production of housing, schools, hospitals, and all other necessities of life. This is what communists aspire to.
