Quebec suspends its recruitment missions abroad in 2025

In the coming days, a “Québec Days” recruitment mission will take place in Paris, the last for probably a year.

We confirm that the MIFI will not hold new Québec Days recruitment missions between now and June 30, 2025, i.e. until the next orientations are known.indicates by email the communications department of the Ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration (MIFI).

According to our information, since the organization of such missions takes a few months, it is likely that no other Journees Québec mission will take place before fall 2025.

Furthermore, - has learned that the ministry will not renew agreements with non-governmental partners (Montréal International, Québec International and Drummond Économique) for the recruitment of temporary foreign workers.

These decisions come as Minister Jean-François Roberge recently announced that a multi-year immigration planning exercise, accompanied by a public consultation, will take place in 2025.

This series of announcements greatly displeases the business community.

It doesn’t do our business. Without being a prophet of doom, in six months [ou] one year, businesses will close, reduce their activities due to lack of laborsays Denis Hamel, strategic advisor to the presidency of the Quebec Employers’ Council.

We need to depoliticize the issue, think about it, assess workforce needs.

For the president of the Montreal Chamber of Commerce, Michel Leblanc, we are shooting ourselves in the foot, we are undoing something that was highly strategic.

Companies will communicate with politicians by showing them the absurdity of the situation.

450 teachers in four years

The suspension of the Quebec Days could also have repercussions on the recruitment of teaching staff abroad.

According to MIFI data, in four years, Quebec has hired around 450 teachers thanks to recruitment activities (Journées Québec), including around a hundred in Africa.

After stopping recruiting nurses in Africa earlier in 2024, Quebec had also expanded its approach ethics in the recruitment of professors abroad, particularly in Africa.

In an email exchange with MIFI, management explains that the ministry has suspended, for the moment, its teacher recruitment activities in Cameroon and Ivory Coast, without however preventing those who submit an immigration application, not requested by Quebec, from carrying out their life project.

Quebec teaching unions emphasize that recruiting abroad has never been a panacea and that attracting and retaining staff is the key.

Often, the training they have, although it is linked to teaching, is not always completely adapted to what is happening in Quebec, recalls the president of the FAE, Mélanie Hébert. The relationship with students, the relationship with parents, all of that, these are elements that vary a lot from one country to another, from one culture to another.

Not to mention, underlines Luc Beauregard, of the CSQ, that the shortage in education is global. The ethical question really arises here. […] A recent UN report is quite eloquent on this fact.he said.

At the Ministry of Education (MEQ), we are told that the ministry has mandated the Federation of School Service Centers (FCSSQ) to offer school service centers a complete support and assistance service in the recruitment of teachers trained abroad.

The MEQ issues between 600 and 700 notices of conditional eligibility per year to teachers trained outside Canada.