Minorities Speak Up: Results of the Survey of the Vitality of Official-Language Minorities

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The concept of vitality is now an integral part of the vocabulary of many observers and players in the political, academic and community spheres. However, despite its widespread use, the concept is not easy to define1. While the definition may be broad enough to make the concept useful, its lack of precision generally makes vitality difficult to pin down and measure. Considering that the concept of vitality is multi-faceted and complex, the Survey on the Vitality of Official-Language Minorities (SVOLM) was mainly intended as a tool for measuring some of its major dimensions.

In Part VII of the Official Languages Act of 1988, section 41 states, in its English version, that the federal government "is committed to enhancing the vitality of the English and French linguistic minority communities in Canada…" while the French version states that the government "s'engage à favoriser l'épanouissement des minorités francophones et anglophones du Canada…" This association between vitality and "épanouissement" (advancement) would seem to suggest that these linguistic communities have a dynamic quality on which their development or indeed their survival depends.

This first analytical report of SVOLM data is presented following the release of language data from the 2006 Census, which occurred December 4, 2007. While the Census contains a number of language questions, it allows the exploration of only a limited number of areas of language use outside the home, and it does not provide answers to various questions that interest official language minorities. The survey is intended to fill some of these gaps. This first report will also seek to provide statistics useful for developing programs and policies regarding official-language minorities.

The first section of the report will present general information on SVOLM as well as the context in which the survey was created.

Section 2 will present information on the concept of subjective vitality and sense of belonging. The vitality of linguistic communities in a minority situation has at least two components: objective and subjective. In other words, for one part there are facts and behaviours, and on the other hand there are perceptions and representations. The SVOLM information will enable us to highlight not only the perceptions that members of minority groups have of their community and its future, but also it will be able to juxtapose and compare the subjective and objective aspects of vitality and show the link between behaviours and perceptions.

A major portion of the Survey on the Vitality of Official-Language Minorities concerns language behaviours. Within the family, with friends, within the broader social network or outside the home within various institutions, the survey yields a general picture of the use of languages in both the private and public spheres.

Related to this, section 3 presents statistics to show how official language minorities (OLM) are using the minority language in their daily life outside the home and in the workplace. In cases where the minority language is rarely used (which appears to be the case for many Francophones outside Quebec), it is necessary to analyse the link between respondents' main language and the language that they use in their daily activities. The results presented allow us to answer the following questions:

  1. Are there some areas or spheres of life outside the home where people use the language of the majority while in others they use the language of the minority?
  2. How widespread are the phenomena of people not using the minority language because that language is simply no longer their main language and of people wanting to use the minority language (their main language) but not doing so or being unable to do so? Also, we can thus highlight the relationship that exists between the perception of the language's presence in various spheres and whether or not the language is used.

Section 4 covers health care. This theme is important for at least two reasons. Firstly, the departure of young people towards large cities or outside their province contributes to the ageing of the population by the early attrition of younger cohorts. Secondly, for Francophones in particular, a number of communities have a population that is aging proportionally more rapidly than the majority population, because the language is not being passed on to the new cohorts. Also, health care is a key sector; considering how vulnerable people feel when they need care, it is especially important to be able to use the language in which one can make oneself understood and feel most at ease.

In this section, then, it is necessary to bring out how important it is (or is not) for OLM members to receive services in the language of the minority. The reasons given by respondents are also important, since they are generally tied to perceptions which may influence their behaviour.

The main question that should guide the fifth section is the following: considering that education in the language of the minority is seen by many, as a basic means to ensure their survival, to what extent does information on the educational and linguistic paths of children in OLM confirm that perception? In other words, can we conclude that the hope placed in children to ensure the vitality of OLMs is reflected in the choices made by parents? Considering that section 23 of the Charter is seen as a major advance for the rights of OLM, and particularly Francophones, the results of the survey on school attendance provide useful information to judge the actual situation.

We know that our current understanding of enrolment in minority schools is imprecise and partial. A number of people are therefore expecting the SVOLM to provide a better estimate of the phenomenon. This being the case, the choices of parents are based on a number of factors. Other than the characteristics of the parents, the report also brings to light certain reasons why they decided to send their child to one school or another, one program or another.

Finally, by means of the conclusion, we want not only to summarize the main findings brought out in the framework of this report, but we also propose that this rich data source would allow in-depth study of several important issues.


Notes

  1. See, among others, literature review proposed by Harwood and al. (1994).

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