Taming the Trojan Horse: Quebec and the Politics of Demography

Abstract

In Montreal, Quebec’s largest city, immigration has sometimes been described as a Trojan horse—while at first glance bringing population growth and prosperity, on closer inspection it arguably furthered Anglophone economic dominance and threatened the future of French in the city and province that were home to the ‘French Fact’ in North America (Caldwell & Fournier 1987). Quebec is perhaps the best-known case of the intersection of the politics of immigration and the politics of substate nationalism. While policy makers have valued immigration for the economic, labour and demographic benefits it brings, they have long had concerns about the impact of immigration flows and integration patterns on the society’s Francophone character and, more recently, the secularization of post-1960s Quebec.