Is Canada’s Plan to Attract French Speakers Working?

Key Takeaways 

• Francophone immigration increased tenfold from 2015 to 2024.  

• Ontario attracts the most French speakers outside Quebec, while Canada’s territories attract relatively few.  

• Express Entry programs have been bringing significantly more French-speaking candidates to Canada since 2022.  

A Timeline of Pro-French Immigration Policies in Canada

For many newcomers, the pro-French immigration policies may seem new – but they aren’t as new as they may seem. Canada had plenty of pro-French policies prior to the French category being introduced in 2023. In fact, Canada introduced French targets for immigration as far back as 2018. 

Here’s that has looked like over time:

2018 — 4,922 French speaking immigrants (1.82% of overall total)

2019 — 8,470 (2.82% of overall total)

2020 — 5,756 (3.61% of overall immigration total)

2021 — 6,949 (1.95% of overall immigration total)

2022 — 16,371 (4.44% of overall total).

But, Canada has ramped up its efforts to attract French speakers since 2023.  

A History of Immigration Programs for French Speakers  

In 2016, IRCC launched the Francophone mobility stream in the International Mobility Program for temporary residence. This helps French speakers gain work experience to qualify for permanent residence – and it’s still available today.  

In 2017, Canada introduced points for strong French language skills, initially offering 15 points for strong French language skills with limited English proficiency and 30 points for strong English and French.    

In 2018, IRCC added a second French-language tester to make the tests more accessible and affordable.  

In 2020, the number of CRS points granted to French speakers increased from 15 to 25 and for bilingual candidates, the CRS points jumped from 30 to 50.  

2021: The TR-to-PR pathway had three programs specifically for French speakers – French-speaking workers in Canada: healthcare (271 applications submitted to IRCC), French-speaking workers in Canada: essential, non-healthcare (2,054 applications submitted to IRCC), French-speaking recent international graduates from a Canadian institution (4,697 applications submitted to IRCC).  All of these programs had unlimited quotas. See more here. 

In 2023, Canada introduced more ambitious targets for French speakers. In fact, the “Standing Committee on Official Languages report on Openness to the International Francophone Community: Optimizing Francophone Immigration to Canada [recommended] a target of 12% in 2024, rising to 20% by 2036.”  

In other words, it’s likely that French targets are here to stay in Canadian immigration.  

Francophone Immigration Over The Past Decade 

Given Canada’s cultural diversity, it’s not surprise that French speakers have always immigrated to Canada (outside Quebec). But the incredible fact is that the number of French speakers coming to Canada each year has increased tenfold over the past decade – thanks to Canada prioritizing French-speaking immigrants.  

Here’s a look into the past ten years of Francophone immigration:  

2015: 2,990 

2016: 3,905 

2017: 4,130 

2018: 4,910 

2019: 8,465 

2020: 5,755 (immigration generally was low during the pandemic) 

2021: 6,955 

2022: 16,380 

2023: 19,635 

2024: 30,565 

2025: 6,857 in Q1, with a plan to bring in over 29,000.  

It’s important to note that the definition of French speaker changed in 2019, which partially accounts for the increase. Prior to 2019, the definition of French speakers only counted permanent residents whose mother tongue was French or whose mother tongue was neither French nor English, but that ‘French only’ was their official language for immigration purposes. From 2019, the definition includes permanent residents who select French only or French and English as their official language. So, this definition is more expansive and may explain why there was a bump in 2019. 

Provincial & Territorial French Immigration 

When it comes to immigration to Canada (outside Quebec) for French speakers over the past decade, here’s how the provinces and territories stacked up: 

1. Ontario — 67,235 between 2015 and 2024
2. New Brunswick — 14,165
3. Alberta — 11,335
4. British Columbia – 7,180
5. Manitoba — 5,680
6. Nova Scotia — 2,125
7. Saskatchewan — 1,705
8. Newfoundland and Labrador — 405
9. PrinceEdward Island — 325
10. Yukon — 195
11. North West Territories — 85
12. Nunavut — 60

Ontario by itself accounts for roughly 62,810 of the 109,635 francophone newcomers (≈57%) over the last decade. New Brunswick (≈12%) and Alberta (≈10%) follow, while the territories combined represent under 1%. 

How Many French Speaking Immigrants Across Canada In The Past Decade?

Here’s what the data shows us for French immigration at the provincial and territorial levels over the past decade (volume and overall percentage):  

Some of the key trends we noted:  

• Ontario rose from about 54% of francophone arrivals in 2015 to 64.5% in 2024. 

• New Brunswick increased from roughly 6.5% to 15.0%, solidifying its role as the second‑largest destination. 

• Nova Scotia peaked in 2022 (4.85%) before slipping back to under 1% in 2024; PEI and Newfoundland remain under 0.5% each. 

• Alberta held around 10–13%, Manitoba and Saskatchewan each saw slight declines (Manitoba from ~7% to ~4%, Saskatchewan ~3–4%). 

• Yukon, NWT and Nunavut collectively stay below 0.5% every year. 

Is Canada’s Plan To Attract French Speakers Working?  

So, is it working?  

At this point, that’s a matter of personal opinion. Many individuals working in the immigration industry are skeptical about the French category in Canada’s Express Entry system. The proficiency requirement for French is quite low, so we are hearing anecdotally that people are learning French to pass the language test and receive an invitation – with no real intention of speaking French again.  

There are also concerns that those whose first language is French and who French to move to Canada outside of Quebec may ultimately move to Quebec to be closer to job opportunities and other native French speakers.  

We don’t (yet) have data about whether the French speakers are staying in Canada, where they move to, or what their wage outcomes are in the mid- or longer-term. But we are interested to find out how it progresses!  

The takeaway for those of you reading this who are hoping to immigrate to Canada is that learning French remains a strong strategy, and French language proficiency will likely open doors for you for years to come.