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The number of Nova Scotians who primarily speak French at work and home has tumbled by 25 per cent in less than two decades.

The province’s population that identifies French as their first language is also down 15 per cent from 2001, according to Census Data from Statistics Canada.

However, bilingualism here increased by 17 per cent, or around 10,000 people, over the same period. More Bluenoses are speaking French overall, but less are using it as their primary language.

This is a trend across the country, according to Emilie Lavoie, an analyst with StatCanada.

“Most of the immigration coming in is not French mother tongue, but they may have knowledge of French,” said Lavoie. “And French immersion programs are gaining more and more students.”

Lavoie said the largest source of French immigration here is from the Middle East and Africa, but most of these people do not identify French as their mother tongue. Those here who list French as their mother tongue are aging, which may have also contributed to the decline, she added.

“These numbers do not reflect the reality in Nova Scotia,” said Marie-Claude Rioux from the Fédération Acadienne de la Nouvelle-Écosse. She said the census survey methods did not account for elderly people in nursing homes who may have French as their mother tongue.

Many Acadians do not identify as francophone because of years of historical marginalization, Rioux said.

“Francophones are afraid to speak French, not only to anglophones but (amongst) themselves, depending on the regions they’re coming from,” she said. “We’re always feeling inferior to the other francophones.”

“Somehow it’s ingrained in our brains that we don’t speak proper French because of our accents,” she added. “We’ve created an inferiority complex.”

This is something Alexandre Pirottin, who speaks for Conseil communataire du Grand-Havre, has noticed in his interactions with francophones in Nova Scotia.

“They’re a bit shy to speak with me or people from Quebec in French, because they always feel inferior,” said Pirottin, who is originally from Paris.

“It’s not so much about historic links, but embracing the survival of the French language and the French culture,” - Marie-Claude Rioux, Fédération Acadienne de la Nouvelle-Écosse

The Acadian community in Nova Scotia recently had its protected seat in the Nova Scotia legislature reinstated after years of campaigning by the Acadian Federation of Nova Scotia. But challenges to Acadian and French culture still exist in people’s day-to-day life.

Someone who is denied French service in a bar or a restaurant is unlikely to continue to ask for it. This contributes to this inferiority complex, according to Rioux.

“When you walk in a restaurant, just say ‘Bonjour,’ everybody in 2019 should be able to understand this,” she said. “And what you’re doing by that is saying, ‘Hey, I’m an Acadian and I can speak French.’”

But having more bilingual people in Nova Scotia is “fantastic news,” and the immersion schools are doing a great job, said Lavoie. Immigrants who are French-speaking are also an important part of preserving the language in Nova Scotia, said Lavoie.

“We strongly believe that the more diverse a population is, the richer it is. I think this is a no-brainer for me. We’re embracing diversity, we’re part of it,” said Rioux.

“There will be more and more francophones in the world, and those francophones will be from Africa,” she said. “We’re working very closely with immigration services to integrate and welcome Nova Scotian francophones and they enjoy it so much that they want to stay here.”

“It’s not so much about historic links, but embracing the survival of the French language and the French culture,” Rioux added.

Evolution of Acadian culture in Nova Scotia is inevitable when large amounts of immigration happens, and should be welcomed said Pirottin.

“I really think Acadian French is going to evolve again; it’s not only going to be French from France,” he said. “Everybody has to kind of think about it like that, and realize there is not only one francophone culture.”

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