Exogamy refers to the marriage of someone from a certain culture, to a spouse from outside that culture. \u00a0From the francophone perspective, an exogamous family has one parent with French as the mother tongue, while the other parent has a different mother tongue.<\/p>\n
In the francophone education system, most students come from exogamous families. As homogeneous French families become increasingly rare in Canada, the survival of francophone education outside Quebec depends on the enrollment of children from exogamous families.<\/p>\n
Many people wonder why they would send their child to francophone education when they could just send them to the English system. \u00a0The answer is that in Canada, children who are educated in French usually turn out to be better in English as well. \u00a0Most people accept without question that knowing a second language is advantageous, and that learning it from a young age – if possible – is the best way.<\/p>\n
Surprisingly, a francophone parent will often speak English at home to their children. \u00a0At the same time, the exogamous parent (usually English-speaking) may be more serious about their children’s learning French – probably because it’s a great opportunity that the English parent never had themselves.<\/p>\n
The challenge for the francophone schools is to devise a way to welcome the non-French parents of exogamous families, while still maintaining a French-speaking environment. \u00a0Such a solution will likely ensure the growth of French-English bilingualism outside Quebec.<\/p>\n
Sources:<\/p>\n
Rodrigue Landry, “The challenges of exogamy”<\/a><\/p>\n