“The people who are victims of discrimination in this case are not present and it's easy at that time for the government to turn a deaf ear”, says René Gingras. (File photo)
The director general of the Cégep de Rivière-du-Loup, René Gingras, denounces the difficulties encountered by foreign students who wish to attend CEGEPs and universities in Quebec. He accuses the federal government of turning a deaf ear to a problem that has existed for a long time.
According to a study conducted by the Institut du Québec (IDQ), 72% of students Africans are refused by Ottawa.
The main reason given by the Ministry of Immigration for these refusals is that the students would risk not returning to their country of origin. x27;origin at the end of their studies, specifies the IDQ in its report.
René Gingras is not angry at this situation, which has also been denounced by other educational establishments.
He says that students who come from France do not generally do not encounter this problem.
He salutes the excellent work of Quebec in quickly processing the files of French-speaking foreign students, but affirms that there is a systematic refusal for requests from students from Africa francophone once the file has been returned to Ottawa.
“There was a parliamentary committee that looked into this in Ottawa [and] talked about racism. I would go even further: I would say that there is definitely an unfavorable bias against Francophones to which we add a layer of racism. »
— René Gingras, Director General of Cégep de Rivière-du-Loup
The director general is all the more shocked by the situation in a context where Quebec wishes to encourage the arrival of foreign students. A year ago, Jean Boulet was in Rimouski for an $8 million announcement to promote the attraction and retention of foreign students in the region. However, many of them could not benefit from this measure.
We want to regionalize immigration. The best way to do this is to welcome foreign students to our establishments in the regions, to send them to do their internship in our companies, so that they can then work with us, believes René Gingras.
René Gingras, Director General of Cégep de Rivière-du-Loup, would like his exit causes a reaction. (File photo)
According to him, the current system hinders the development of the regions, does not solve the problem of the labor shortage and, what is more, endangers certain study programs.
< p class="e-p">If we don't do that, people will arrive in Montreal, find a community in Montreal and stay in Montreal. We are harming the regionalization of immigration by refusing study permits in regional establishments, indignant Mr. Gingras.
“I don't understand what planet the federal immigration minister lives on, but it's about time he got to earth.
— René Gingras
The Regroupement des cégeps de regions (RCR), of which the Cégep de Rivière-du-Loup is a member along with 12 other cégeps, was to meet the Minister Sean Fraser to make him aware of the impact of foreign students on the sustainability of institutions and on the occupation of the territory.
That meeting, which was supposed to take place last year, was canceled and Mr. Fraser has been an absentee ever since. So we draw the conclusions we can draw, he laments.
He claims to have the support of the provincial deputy for Rivière-du-Loup–Témiscouata , Amélie Dionne, who knows the problem as a whole and is trying to get things moving with her federal interlocutor, without success.
He concludes by saying sadly that since the victims of discrimination are not present, it is then easy for the government to turn a deaf ear.
Le Cégep de Rivière- du-Loup welcomes more than a hundred foreign students a year, but could welcome more, concludes René Gingras.
At the time of publishing these lines, the Ministry of x27;Immigration had not responded to our interview request.
With information from Patrick Bergeron
