For the Francophone communities of western Canada, judicial decisions constitute the cornerstone of advances in, or curtailments of, linguistic rights, as revealed by the reaction to the recent cases Caron v. Alberta (2015) and Rose-des-vents v. British Columbia (2015). For along with established jurisprudence and constitutional language rights, other judicial norms also support Francophone minorities.

This study also proposes a legal analysis of federal and provincial language laws, bilateral agreements and municipal legal powers that contribute to the construction of public policy regarding international Francophone immigration. Municipal governments, although they have no jurisdiction with regard to immigration, are nonetheless essential stakeholders along the immigration continuum. Nonetheless, in the interests of improving strategies of linguistic development, federal, provincial and municipal standards need to be better integrated.

In a context where the number of people claiming French as their maternal language is diminishing in the west (Statistics Canada, 2016), the issue is to reinforce the integration of the standards at various levels as a means of developing immigration policies which will contribute to the growth of a Francophone presence. As a prospective illustration, emphasis will be place on those municipal, provincial and federal measures which favour Francophone immigration.