The quest for professional recognition of immigrants preferring to speak English in the Montreal region: Similarities and disagreements

Although the issue of the recognition of degrees and skills of immigrants is well-documented in the literature, immigrants preferring English (IPE) is a category too often overlooked. From focus group discussions conducted with IPE, this article identifies some of the challenges these people face in their quest for recognition of their achievements and skills. The results from our sample show that despite similarities in the experiences of this group of immigrants with those of immigrants preferring French (IPF), poor command of French promotes information asymmetry with regard to the programs offered, which indicates the existence of barriers that are unique to this category of immigrants. The analysis of testimonials of participants also points to gaps in the coordination between the Quebec institutions involved.