Today, Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Marc Miller announced a new immigration pilot to welcome more international students into Francophone communities across Canada.
According to a release by IRCC, the Francophone Minority Communities Pilot Program (FMCSP) will improve admission rates and make the current program fair for students from Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas.
To do this, IRCC says “students and their families will be exempted from having to demonstrate that they will leave Canada at the end of their temporary stay. In addition, the required financial threshold will be adjusted to reflect 75% of the low-income cut-off associated with the municipality where the institution’s main campus is located.”
These students will also have a direct pathway to permanent resident status after they complete their programs and access to settlement services.
The pilot will open on August 26, 2024, and will accept 2,300 students in the first year. This cap will be reassessed in August 2025.
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Who can apply?
To be eligible, students must have a letter of acceptance from a participating Designated Learning Institution (DLI) that says they are applying under the FMCSP. The study program must meet the following criteria:
- be at the post-secondary level;
- be full-time;
- be 2 years or more of study;
- lead to a degree or diploma; and
- have French as the primary language of instruction (over 50% of the classes are taught in French).
Students must also be citizens of these eligible countries:
- Benin
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi
- Cabo Verde
- Cameroon
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Comoros
- Côte d’Ivoire
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Dominica
- Republic of the Congo
- Djibouti
- Egypt
- Equatorial Guinea
- Gabon
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Haiti
- Lebanon
- Madagascar
- Mali
- Mauritania
- Mauritius
- Morocco
- Niger
- Rwanda
- Saint Lucia
- São Tomé and Principe
- Senegal
- Seychelles
- Togo
- Tunisia
Students in the FMCSP are permitted to bring their spouses, common-law partners, or dependent children with them. Spouses and common-law partners of participants may be eligible for a visitor visa, open work permit or study permit.
Of note, students in the Pilot are exempt from many of the recent changes to Canada’s international student program. For example, they are not required to obtain a Provincial Attestation Letter (PAL) from their DLI, and participants are not included in IRCC’s processing cap for international student applications.
New communities added to the Welcoming Francophone Communities Initiative
Minister Miller also announced the addition of 10 new francophone communities to the Welcoming Francophone Communities (WFC) initiative. This initiative aims to support the reception and settlement of Francophone newcomers in select Francophone and Acadian communities across Canada. Settlement services for newcomers through this initiative (including community building, skills development, employment assistance and more) are provided by IRCC, and the participating community.
In addition to the 14 communities already participating in the initiative, Miller announced the following communities will now also be included:
| Province | New Communities Selected |
|---|---|
| British Columbia | Nanaimo |
| Manitoba | Red River (Ritchot, Salaberry, Montcalm, and St-Pierre-Jolys) |
| Nova Scotia | Chéticamp (including St. Joseph du Moine) |
| New Brunswick | Belle-Baie (including Bathurst and the Pabineau First Nation) |
| Caraquet (including Rivière du Nord and Hautes-Terres) | |
| Restigouche West Region (Saint-Quentin and Kedgwick) | |
| Saskatchewan | Prince Albert |
| Ontario | Cornwall |
| Cochrane District (Route 11 Corridor) | |
| London |
This brings the total number of communities participating in the WCF to 24. Canda’s renewal of this initiative is part of a wider Francophone immigration strategy which looks to balance the use of English and French (both official languages) in the country—particularly the use of French outside of Quebec. These are further detailed in comments made at today’s release by Liane Roy, President of the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada (FCFA):
“The WFC initiative is an eloquent example of the commitment of Francophone and Acadian communities to the overall success of immigrants…. [communities] have set up activities to promote living together and inclusion, and have strengthened the attractiveness of our communities with the aim of increasing Francophone immigration”
Canada’s francophone immigration policy
The two pilot programs are part of Canada’s Policy on Francophone Immigration. Earlier this year the department announced that it was targeting that 6% of all newcomers to Canada are French speaking.
Additionally, Canada’s Official Language Act highlights the obligation for the immigration minister to adopt “a policy on Francophone immigration to enhance the vitality of French linguistic minority communities in Canada, including by restoring and increasing their demographic weight.”
The new programs are one measure IRCC is undertaking to increase the number of francophone immigrants. It is also expected that the department will issue a high number of Invitations to Apply to Express Entry candidates with French language proficiency through category-based selection rounds of invitations.
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