Choosing a school in a 'double-minority' context: language, migration and ideologies in French Ontario

Based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out in Toronto, Ontario, this article examines the schooling behaviour of parents who have migrated from France to Canada. The population under study, engaged in a 'northern' kind of migration, generally benefits from an education acquired in the pre-migration period and from the legitimacy of possessing an international language. On the other hand, these immigrants from France are faced with a reversed status within their host society: while they used to belong to the majority in their country of origin, they have become a minority in English Canada, as well as a minority within the Francophone minority of the province. The central argument of this article is that for immigrant families, language acquisition and maintenance, educational philosophy and renewed identifications are key to the decisionmaking process of choosing a school. This is particularly true in the context of a diverse 'educational market' (such as this urban Canadian one) which offers programmes ranging from an ethno-centred kind of education to a non-ethnic, student-centred, multicultural approach of learning. The study reveals that educational choices contribute to immigrants' adaptation processes, and that opting for a school may both reflect ideology and identity choices and participate in their reproduction.