Language ‐ A Passport to Successful Immigrant Adjustment? The Quebec Experience
| Date | 01 July 1972 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.1972.tb00893.x |
| Author | Naomi Moldofsky |
| Published date | 01 July 1972 |
Language
-
A
Passport to Successful
Immigrant Adjustment
?
The Quebec Experience
OR,
SOME IMPLICATIONS
OF
LANGUAGE TO THE
PROCESS
OF
IMMIGRANT ADJUSTMENT
BY
NAOMI MOLDOFSKY
Adjustment is perhaps the most fundamental postulate underlying
all
immigration pro-
grammes and language
-
the most important means of human communications
-
a
basic
consideration in any such adjustment. For effective communication within their new
environment it is imperative that immigrants learn to understand and speak the official
language of their host society. Undoubtedly language problems account for many diffi-
culties experienced by immigrants. For instance, without facility in the required language
it is difficult to
fill
certain technical
or
professional posts; or citizenship may be denied
to those immigrants who fail to learn the official language. Indeed, adaption
to
new
surroundings requires
a
means of communication and few could dispute that language
may form
a
hindrance
to
successful adjustment. But could we equally assert that language
is in fact
a
passport to successful adjustment?
This
is
the question which primarily interests this paper.
A
study of the adjustment
process of
a
group of immigrants in Montreal, Canada, undertaken in
1967,
provides the
empirical background for discussing this problem.[l] Some immigrants may appear to be
better equipped than others to cope with new surroundings
so
that different immigrant
groups may possibly differ in manner and process of adjustment; nevertheless, certain
broad features of adjustment, particularly those entailing problems of employment,
home-making and cultural transfer, are essentially the same,
so
that we may possibly
regard the respondents as
a
sample of
a
larger population
of
immigrants. Moreover, the
respondents, who appeared to come close to the type of immigrant currently being sought
by Canadian immigration authorities, may offer some useful information, especially
so
their experiences in the areas
of
employment, social relations and place of residence, where
facility in language is perhaps of greatest importance. These areas if not exhaustive, are
Perhaps sufficient
to
help elucidate the problem at hand.
Let
us
turn now to examine some of the experiences of the respondent group in Mon-
treal. However, we need perhaps first remind ourselves that any study
of
the adjustment
of
immigrants in Canada is complicated by the fact that in terms of political constitution
and social institutions, Canada is essentially a dualistic society, with two major groups
131
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