Mapping Employment Supports for Québec’s Racialized and Immigrant English-speaking Communities

2023 - 09 - 27

Authors

Executive Summary

Morgan Gagnon, Policy Lead, PERT

Sithandazile Kuzviwanza, Director of Policy & Research, PERT

Employment has increasingly become a priority issue for English-speaking communities in Québec, as they continue to face higher unemployment rates and lower incomes compared to the French-speaking majority. Labour force data on English-speaking immigrant and racialized individuals indicates that these groups tend to experience even greater challenges in the labour market. As both linguistic minorities and immigrants and/or racialized individuals, they navigate a French-language labour market while facing challenges such as discrimination and under-resourcing.

Within this landscape, employment supports, such as employability workshops, job search assistance and career coaching, play an important role in addressing labour market barriers. For English-speaking immigrant and racialized individuals, employment supports that recognize their unique experiences and position in the labour market can have positive impacts on their labour force outcomes.

This research aims to improve understanding of the labour force situation of immigrant and racialized English speakers in Québec and assess the available employment supports for these communities.

Key Findings:

Racialized communities and immigrants have difficulty accessing employment services owing to a lack of English-language services and the language barrier associated with accessing French-language services.
English-speaking visible minorities have an unemployment rate of 12.3% compared to a 10.9% unemployment rate for the total English-speaking population.
Indigenous individuals who speak English as their FOL have a higher unemployment rate than the total ESC (12.2% compared to 10.9%).
Immigrants who speak English as their FOL have an unemployment rate of 11.6%, compared to 10.9% within the broader English-speaking community, 9.0% among French-speaking immigrants, and 6.9% among all individuals who speak French as their FOL.
The study identified 67 employment and employability programs targeted towards racialized communities, immigrants, and Indigenous communities that speak English as their FOL, with the majority (29) located in Montréal.
Demographic and labour force portraits reveal that one-third (35.9%) of English-speaking Quebecers are visible minorities (447,078 individuals). First Nations, Inuit, and Métis individuals who speak English as their FOL comprise 4.0% of the English-speaking community in Québec (50,040). One-third (32.5%) of the English-speaking community in Québec consists of immigrants (404,573 individuals).
The research highlights the need for employment service provision to consider the holistic needs of racialized clients, and immigrants, including housing, food, mental health, illness, and childcare. Language barriers often hinder access to employment services, and ad-hoc measures like translation support are common.