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ABSTRACT
This article looks at attitudes regarding openness to immigration and inclusion of immigrants in identity in Francophone minority settings. From the standpoint of both the official discourse of associations (the elite) and the mainstream population, there is a great willingness to be open to immigration, but it is not always accompanied by a genuinely inclusive attitude.
This article deals with attitudes towards immigration in Francophone minority communities in Canada. Two types of attitudes are examined: openness to immigration on the one hand, and inclusion of immigrants in identity, on the other. These are important themes in the current context, a context in which, as other articles in this thematic issue have shown, there is a desire to bring immigrants to Francophone minority communities in the hopes that they will contribute to the vitality of the communities and, in particular, increase their demographic weight.
The practical work and research into the issue of immigration to Francophone minority communities have generally focused on the material and practical aspects of integration of immigrants. Typically, topics of interest are the reception and then the social and economic integration of the immigrants. Relatively little attention is paid to more symbolic issues, such as attitudes of openness to immigration in the local population or the issue of including immigrants in identity. These two symbolic aspects of the immigrant experience in Francophone minority settings are the focus of my article. First I will look at the official discourse of associations (the elite) and then the prevailing attitudes in the "mainstream" population.'
Openness and inclusion in the discourse of associations
First of all, I will look at the attitudes towards immigration as they are manifested in the official discourse of associations (or the elite) because they figure prominently as players that construct the identity of a population. My colleague Chedly Belkhodja and I analyzed the official positions of these associations as presented on the websites of the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada (FCFA) and its 19 member associations, as well as on the sites of the 30 member associations of the Forum de concertation des organismes acadiens du NouveauBrunswick.2 Although a website is not entirely representative of an organization's position on immigration, it is nonetheless one of...