Immigrants et forums internet : les représentations de la géographie résidentielle des russophones à Montréal.

Le demantelement de l’URSS en 1991 a ouvert les frontieres d’un immense territoire. La plus grande part des mouvements migratoires qui s’en sont suivis s’est effectuee a l’interieur meme des frontieres de l’ancienne Union Sovietique, mais plusieurs personnes ont egalement choisi d’emigrer vers des pays tels que l’Allemagne, Israel et les Etats-Unis. Le Canada accueille lui aussi un certain nombre de ces migrants depuis les annees 1990, et ce principalement en tant qu’immigrants economiques. Consequemment, la communaute russophone montrealaise ne cesse de se diversifier et de prendre de l’expansion. Elle demeure toutefois assez peu visible dans l’espace montrealais, si ce n’est d’une certaine concentration commerciale et institutionnelle plus visible dans l’arrondissement montrealais Cote-des-Neiges – Notre-Dame-de-Grâce et dans la municipalite voisine de Cote-Saint-Luc. Le portrait du positionnement residentiel des ressortissants d’ex-URSS dans l’ensemble de la region montrealaise reste relativement meconnu. Peu d’etudes se sont efforcees de comprendre la situation residentielle plus dispersee de groupes d’immigrants qualifies tels que les russophones. Il est interessant de s’y attarder puisque le logement est un enjeu primordial dans les demarches d’integration des nouveaux arrivants. Ce memoire vise donc a faire la lumiere sur la geographie residentielle des immigrants d’ex-URSS recemment installes a Montreal. Il se situe au carrefour des etudes classiques sur le positionnement residentiel des immigrants(assimilationnisme, pluralisme) et de nouveaux concepts mis de l’avant par les chercheurs pour rendre compte de la diversification des trajectoires migratoires individuelles et collectives (heterolocalisme, choix residentiels). Il explore aussi un corpus empirique peu exploite, en l’occurrence un lieu d’echange virtuel entre immigrants etablis et futurs candidats a l’immigration russophones, afin de cerner les representations du logement et des quartiers montrealais qu’ils vehiculent. Deux questions sous-tendent la recherche : Comment les immigrants russophones se repartissent-ils dans l’espace residentiel montrealais? Quelles representations des quartiers et du logement montrealais sont vehiculees par les internautes russophones frequentant le wiki « Mon Quebec » et le forum « Cafe Quebecois »? Cette etude de cas comporte trois volets methodologiques. Le premier est un portrait sociohistorique des vagues migratoires en provenance d’ex-URSS, qui s’averent un groupe d’immigrants meconnu a Montreal. Le second volet est un portrait statistique et cartographique du positionnement residentiel des immigrants nes en ex-URSS a partir des donnees du recensement de Statistique Canada et des dossiers d’admission des immigrants russophones admis au Quebec entre 2001 et 2009. Le troisieme est une analyse de contenu du portail Internet « www.razgovory.com » frequente par des immigrants russophones etablis a Montreal et par des candidats a l’immigration. Au terme de cette recherche, nous constatons que le positionnement residentiel des immigrants d’ex- URSS a Montreal est caracterise par une dispersion relative des effectifs a l’echelle de la region metropolitaine (Ile de Montreal et banlieues sud surtout), accompagnee de quelques noyaux de concentration residentielle, institutionnelle et commerciale russophone plus marques au centre-ouest de l’ile de Montreal. Il s’agit donc d’une distribution que nous qualifions de polycentrique. Quant aux representations de l’espace residentiel montrealais qui ressortent des discussions des internautes russophones, elles temoignent de l’importance des themes de l’habitat ainsi que de l’ambiance, de la securite et du statut socioeconomique des divers secteurs de la region montrealaise. Il n’y a donc pas de trajectoire definie des russophones dans l’espace montrealais, mais une pluralite de configurations qui semblent a la fois relever de choix individuels et de considerations collectives notamment vehiculees par la communaute russophone virtuelle ======= The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 opened the borders of a huge territory. The majority of the migration that followed took place within the territory of the Former Soviet Union (FSU), but many citizens chose to emigrate to various countries like Germany, Israel and the United States. Canada also became a destination for FSU migrants, who were admitted mainly under the economic immigrants category. Since then, Montreal’s Russian-speaking community has continued to grow and diversify; however, it remains a more discreet part of Montreal’s landscape, except for a commercial and institutional concentration that is more visible in the Cote-des-Neiges – Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough and in the adjacent city of Cote-Saint-Luc. The residential location of immigrants from the FSU in the Montreal region thus remains somewhat unknown. Few authors have studied the residential situation of qualified immigrants like the Russian-speaking ones. As such, it is interesting to try to gain a better understanding of this phenomenon, since housing is an important element of immigrants’ integration into a new society. This thesis therefore aims to provide a better understanding of the residential geography of immigrants from the FSU, who have recently settled in the Montreal region. It draws both from concepts rooted in the Chicago School studies on the residential location of immigrants (assimilationism, pluralism) and on new concepts that try to take account of the diversification of the individual and collective trajectories of migrants (heterolocalism, residential choices). It also explores a new empirical corpus – a virtual platform where immigrants already living in Montreal and those who plan to immigrate to Montreal exchange information – in order to identify their representations of Montreal housing and neighbourhoods. There are two main questions behind this research: how are immigrants from the FSU located around Montreal region; what types of representations of Montreal’s neighbourhoods and housing do users of theInternet platform “www.razgovory.com” promote? Three methodological strategies were deployed to answer these questions. The first one is a sociohistorical portrait of the migratory waves from the FSU throughout the 20th century. The second one is a statistical and cartographical account of the sociodemographic and residential characteristics of immigrants from the FSU in the Montreal region, based mainly on data from the Canadian census and some information taken from the admission files from Quebec Ministry of Immigration. The last part of the methodological strategy consists of a thematic content analysis of the Internet platform “www.razgovory.com”, where Montreal’s Russian-speaking immigrants congregate. The results of this research show that the residential settlement pattern of immigrants from the FSU is both characterized by dispersal over the metropolitan area (the Island of Montreal and south-shore suburbs mostly) and by a concentration around a few Russian-speaking residential, institutional and commercial nodes located mostly in the central and western parts of the Island. This settlement pattern is thus a polycentric one. As for the representations of residential space in the Montreal region promoted by the Russian-speaking Internet users, housing (the physical characteristics of the dwelling), followed by the atmosphere, security and socioeconomic status of the neighbourhood appeared to be the most important themes. It doesn’t does not seem like there is a defined residential trajectory for Russian-speaking immigrants in Montreal’s residential space; rather there are various configurations that are the product of individual choices and collective considerations, which are themselves partly shaped by the Russianspeaking Internet users.