Want a job? Take a French surname
Not really surprising that a study finds it’s better to have a French surname if you want a job in Montreal. At least, you’ll have better luck than if you have an apparently African, Latino or Arabic name.
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Spock 19:56 on 2012/05/29 Permalink
That is true. I know people who fell prey to this name based racism.
Jack 20:31 on 2012/05/29 Permalink
So true Spock as Applebaum, Deros, Campbell, Fotopulous and DeSousa’s membership on the 11 person Montreal City Executive Committee indicates.
Spock 21:59 on 2012/05/29 Permalink
And how many Mahmoud, Ahmad, Xinhua, Mbesu, Haryander do we have?
The names you mentioned are white. What Kate and I refer to are those for non-whites…
Kate 22:08 on 2012/05/29 Permalink
That leaves open an interesting question: were people preferring French surnames because they assumed the person would be white, or because the person would be francophone?
Steve Quilliam 23:36 on 2012/05/29 Permalink
Oh please will you stop trying to find small tiny itsy bitsy hint of racism in just about every corner of our society. If our society was racist don’t you think people would go somewhere else ? Don’t you think haitian, african, arab or latinos would come here en masse like they do ?
I dont know if you peope take buses and/or metro but i can assure you there are plenty of arabs and blacks…..and women !
Now what about Frantz Benjamin in Villeray ? Harout Chitilian in Ahuntsic (that doesn’t sound very french) ? Ana Nunes in Outremont ? Lionel Perez (CDN) ? Aref Salem (St-Laurent) ? Plus the dozens of italian, greek, jewish and english name that can be found only at city hall.
Now we can do the same exercise at the provincial level with many non white and the same at the federal level. Both on the island of Montreal.
It’s only normal that the latest immigrant group to settle in the city will struggle a little bit more than the other groups for a while. It’s like that every where. I should know because my name isn’t very french. Some people think i am irish, others that i am english, others that i am armenian etc…
Oh, and by the way, my friend who’s algerian, is working for an algerian pharmacist who only hires algerians or north african people….right here in Montreal !!! Go figure !
Hamza 03:27 on 2012/05/30 Permalink
‘only normal’ – and that is the problem defined
Spock 06:39 on 2012/05/30 Permalink
Steve, immigrants come here because they have, sometimes, no choice. Tell me if Quebec isn’t more racist than ROC, Then answer me this:
Rogers CEO = Muslim Desi
Quebecor CEO = ?
Calgary mayor = Muslim Tanzanian
Montreal mayor = ?
Vancouver police chief = Asian descent
Montreal police chief = ?
Yeah, no racism there…
Also about your friend’s boss, he doesn’t that because if he doesn’t, his fellow paysans probably wouldn’t have jobs or would be paid less elsewhere.
Additionally, I know first hand of many a Quebecer who would rather stay on EI than work for a brown skin ethnic…
Kate 08:14 on 2012/05/30 Permalink
Steve Quilliam: I linked to the story because I thought the report was interesting, not because I wanted to bemoan racism exactly. It also interested me that the report didn’t talk about reactions to other non-French surnames (like my own – although there are francophones in Quebec with Irish surnames, certainly). Also you’re dealing with the interesting fact that sometimes people from Africa – from the Maghreb or sub-Saharan countries – speak French just fine, so in theory they’re not being rejected because they don’t speak the language. It’s a complicated situation we’ve got here, and this report only looks at a slice of it.
Jack 08:33 on 2012/05/30 Permalink
@spock if De Sousa is white I am green.
qatzelok 09:12 on 2012/05/30 Permalink
Spock, your list of “tokenism” actually makes the lack of any kind of English-Canadian culture painfully obvious. “We watch TV and do what it says.”
Steve Quilliam 09:26 on 2012/05/30 Permalink
Has anyone even asked who are the employers ? Who are the employers who are supposedly not hiring minorities ?
On the island of Montreal you can bet that far more than 50% of the employers are anglos, jewish, greeks, italians, portuguese, lebanese and chinese. And just try to ask a chinese employer to hire blacks or arabs !!!!
So according to spock (who’s only intention is to accuse this socitey of racism) the city of Toronto is racist because the mayor is pure white bread, very very very far from being a minority !
No seriously, get a life, go out there and enjoy this great city instead of constantly bashing it. People like you are doing more damage to this place than the students in 3 months of protest. The things is after the strike is over the student will be back in school but our blogs and papers will still be filled by pure Montreal/quebecois haters, unfortunately !
Please stop giving space to the loosers who are desperately seeking for something that it is more in their ”fucked up” head than it is in the everyday life of our city !
Kate 11:15 on 2012/05/30 Permalink
Up to a point we’re all likely to prefer the company of people who look like us and speak our language comfortably.
Steve, to be cynical, employers of any colour will hire people of any colour if they can get them cheaply enough.
Kevin 13:48 on 2012/05/31 Permalink
@Steve
You’re ignoring the gatekeeping role of those schlubs who have the title of human resources officers.