As a resident of Montreal and an Anglo-Quebecer by birth, I have gotten to know the city fairly well in my three years here as a student. Montreal is generally known as the “cultural capital” of Canada, and with the exception of Toronto, is the most multicultural and diverse metropolis as well. The city has a rather complex demographic history, largely with Anglo and Franco denizens sharing the island-city through most of its existence. Power and influence has shifted between the English and French since its colonization, with the Anglos occupying the business and social élite until roughly the Révolution Tranquille - a massive cultural shift and Francophonization of Quebec in the 1960s and ’70s. Since then, the linguistic demographics have shifted, with Francos once again taking the lead in both number of speakers and influence. As it stands now, roughly 2/3 of Montrealais are native Francophones, while the Anglos have been reduced to a mere 13%. Allophones (other-language speakers) comprise the remaining population.
Clearly, French is the majority at-home language, with significant enclaves of Anglo-Montrealers in the West End, and many immigrants throughout. Yet, Montreal is also known as one of the world’s shining examples of bilingualism. Among young Montrealais, Anglos are almost 80% bilingual, while Francos are 50.9% and Allos at 67.6%. Overall, Montreal is 52% bilingual - the highest rate in the country.
As a Montrealer, I can attest to this. Especially in the Ville-Marie and Plateau areas, English and French are used interchangeably - often seamlessly. Service begins with a “Bonjour/Hi”, and continues in whichever language one in which one prefers. Even in bilingual social circles, discussion can move fluidly between languages, often resulting in mixed “Franglais”.
How has this happened? My contention is that the main driver is economic in origin.
Humans make decisions based on the value - subjectively determined - that they perceive it will bring to them. In a linguistic context, this means that people will learn languages for one of three reasons: they have an interest in languages (“for fun”), they need it to navigate society and the labour market (“economic incentives”), or they have a cultural tie to it (“sentimental reasons”). The second is most pertinent to Montreal’s case. Why? Because although many people wish to become multilingual, few put in the effort to succeed, and because Montreal has been less connected to the Quebec sovereignist movement as other parts of the province; thus reducing the perceived sentimental value of French. Obviously, this model is a simplification.
A 1993 paper by Jeffrey Church and Ian King builds a simple model of the economics of bilingualism. They conclude that, because of network externalities and the cost of learning languages, the most efficient outcome is for a linguistic minority to become bilingual. This implies that the Franco-Montrealais shouldn’t bother learning English, while the Anglos should all learn French. Not surprisingly, one sees a muted version of these results in practice - the number of bilingual Anglos exceeds that of Francos by a sizable margin. However, many Montrealais are bilingual, no matter one’s origin. Considering over half of Francophones are bilingual, especially young Francos, there must be something else.
A 2012 LSE publication notes that Anglos in French majority cities assimilate less than vice versa. This may provide some insight. As English is the global lingua franca, people the world over learn it to open up opportunities in an increasingly interconnected world (take young Chinese, for example). In Montreal’s case, although Francos certainly can get by almost anywhere in the city with just French, the economic incentives to learn English often outweigh this, especially if one is of a middle or upper -class background and thus has career prospects abroad. Bilingualism is increasingly becoming a standard requirement for any Montreal-area service position. Knowledge of English is necessary for Francophones to gain employment and network effectively within Montreal and with potential employers in the rest of Canada and the U.S., as well as being necessary to venture anywhere outside of Quebec. Equally, Anglos need French for similar reasons - as by far the majority language in Quebec, it is an absolute necessity for economic and social networking - and of course the common service jobs. Quebec’s bilingual education system makes learning either language quite easy, and parents often opt to place their children in non-native-language schools for these pragmatic reasons. English and French together constitute a sort of single “Montreal language”.
As bilingual individuals interact, their social circles expand to include individuals from both linguistic groups. This encourages the intermeshing of Anglos and Francos, who are then given incentive to learn the other language after being exposed to more and more of the other group. The fundamentally instrumental nature of language in Montreal is evidenced by the ease with which individuals may slip between languages during social interaction.
One could summarize this in simple terms by saying the close-proximity, domestic positive network externalities of the French majority (incentivizing Anglos to learn French) are “balanced” by the massive, more broad positive network externalities for the French speaking groups (Montreal is deeply interconnected with the English-speaking world). By no means do I assert that language is purely instrumental (especially not in the hot-button, emotionally-driven language politics of Quebec), but that the unique bilingual nature of Montreal is driven by its nature as an economic hub and interconnectedness with the outside world - leading to heavy economic incentives that often outweigh cultural sentimentality.
Montreal has developed a cosmopolitan culture unlike the rest of the province, and I believe this enhances its standing as a multicultural hub and economic nexus. It certainly should stay that way.
Tags: bilingualism, Canada, economy, Montreal
