Recruitment and Integration of French-Speaking Newcomers in Prince Edward Island

The regional distribution of immigrants is of critical importance in Canada. The challenge is to ensure a degree of balance in demographic and economic growth across each province and territory (Garcea and Golebioska, 2012: 72). Among the initiatives adopted over the past decade to settle newcomers in the regions of Canada is a policy aimed at “increasing the number of Francophone immigrants wishing to settle in one of the Francophone communities outside Quebec” (Garcea and Golebioska, 2012: 78). In this respect, there is a palpable desire on the part of the federal and provincial governments to see newcomers proficient in one of Canada’s two official languages settle in an official language minority community (OLMC), in order to help reverse — or at least slow — the process of demographic decline in these communities.