Linguistic and Economic Characteristics of Francophone Minorities in Canada: A Comparison of Ontario and New Brunswick

• Autores: Gilles Grenier
• Localización: Journal of multilingual and multicultural development, ISSN 0143-4632, Vol. 18, Nº. 4, 1997, págs. 285-301
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • This paper analyses and compares the Canadian francophone minorities of Ontario and New Brunswick in order to see how wellthey have done in preserving their identity and in achieving economic success. The analysis is performed with micro data from the 1981 and 1991 Canadian censuses. Demographic trends and language use attributes are firstpresented, followed by a discussion of some characteristics thatare related to social and economic status. The paper continues with a more direct analysis of economic performance, which is done through income comparisons and earnings regressions. The major results are as follows. First, assimilation to English is high and increasing in Ontario, but it is still relatively low in New Brunswick. Second, francophones in both provinces have less of the characteristics that lead to high economic status. There is evidence of improvement in some of the characteristics between 1981 and 1991, perhaps more so in Ontario than in New Brunswick. Third, francophones in Ontario, in spite of their less favourable characteristics compared to anglophones, have done relatively well economically. This is not the case for francophones in New Brunswick, whose incomes are behind those of their anglophone counterparts. Fourth, in both provinces, differences in incomes between anglophones and francophones are lower for women than for men.