Québec

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These pages are dedicated to Québec, where I live now.

Officially it is a province of Canada, but I hope that in a few years from now it will become an independent country.

Since my arrival in 2003, I've been living in the capital of the Québec province, Québec City .

Here you can read about my experiences:

• Immigration process
• Trip to Québec
• Life here: March, April, May, June, July, August, September 2003. There is a summary in biography
• Centre Louis-Jolliet
• How to immigrate to Québec (article in Russian)
• Québec City: practical information and organisations helping immigrants
• Links

Provinces of Canada

Québec City

• I wanted to practice French as much as possible (and not to be distracted by English);
• I had an acquaintance here;
• Québec is the oldest city in Canada (founded in 1608). It's neither too big nor too small (about 0.6 million inhabitants), and housing is slightly more affordable than in Montreal. The city is also regarded as the most "European" in the North America.

The Old Québec — the pretty side of the city

Québec City is smaller than Montréal (its eternal rival and the true economic capital of the province). Unlike Montréal, Québec City is almost exclusively "white, Catholic and French-speaking". There are few immigrants here.

In reality the city looks like an average North American city, except the Old Québec — a small tourist area, though I think that it is not as ugly as Montréal. The housing in Québec City is less expensive. However, here it's very hard to find a normal job if your French is not excellent.

The general opinion of immigrants is that Québec City is better for studying or living with children. As for work, there is more chance to find it in Montréal or other parts of Canada (Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, etc.).

Russians in Québec City

In 2001 the Québec province numbered 22 625 residents of the Russian origin. Only 200 of them lived in Quebec City. (Cf: Total Russian population in Canada: 400 000 people, of them in Toronto: 200 000).

Russian immigrants have a high level of education: 38.8% of them have a university diploma compared to 14% of the Québec population. (Source: Portrait statistique de la population d'origine ethnique russe recensée au Québec en 2001).

At the end of 2006 the Russian speaking residents of Quebec City held a few meetings and decided to officially create an association of Russian speakers in Quebec City - Association russophone de Québec (ARQ). On 1 February 2007 it was officially registered by Québec authorities.

The association organises festivities and other socal gatherings. There are plans to start a school for Russian-speaking children.

There is more information on the web site of the association (in Russian) russianquebec.ca. Additional addresses: chezvladimir.com/info and chezvladimir.com/forum.

Here are a few articles about Russians in Québec City from "Les immigrants de la Capitale" (a local magazine about immigrants):

• "Je crois qu'il ne faut jamais oublier ses racines" (page 1) (page 2) - interview of Irina Kouznetsova, a miniature painter (Nov. 2005)

• Quand Moscou rencontre Québec - about Vladimir Gaspariants, a chess player and owner of a Russian foodshop Chez Vladimir, and Tatiana Mogilevskaya, a teacher of Russian at Université Laval (May 2006)

• La Caisse de Limoilou commence à s'adaper à une capitale multiculturelle - Natalia Katayeva, a ex-journalist from St.-Petersburg, has become a financial consultant with Desjardins (Sept. 2006).

• Ingénieurs immigrants dans la "cité interdite" - Tatiana Dotsenko, an engineer, became a member of l'Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec (Oct. 2006).

• Le Jour du défenseur de la patrie, célébré en Russie et ... à Québec - Celebration of the "Men's day" (March 2007)

• Un point de repère pour ceux qui partagent la langue de Tchekhov - About Association russophone de Québec (ARQ) (March 2007)

• "Il a mis ses culottes!" - Interview given by Tatiana Dotsenko MediaMatinQuébec (2007-04-24) on the occasion of Boris Yeltsin's death.

See also this blog in Russian: yaniqc.blogspot.com

Other ethnic communities

• Bulgarian
• Romanian