Research framework: Migration in two stages, i.e. the transition from temporary resident to permanent resident, is becoming important as a migratory phenomenon in Canada and Quebec. It has repercussions in several spheres of migrants’ life, whether it be family, professional or migratory.

Objectives: This article seeks to explore the processes involved in the change of migration status of a Brazilian family in Quebec from temporary resident to permanent resident.

Methodology: The study used qualitative data from repeated interviews with the principal applicant, a professional in engineering, his spouse and children.

Results: Each of the children attended school in English for three years. Upon obtaining the Quebec Selection Certificate, each was forced to leave the English school and enroll in French school. This caused a break in their educational path and led to new constraints on their socio-professional mobility and in their parent’s plans for re-migration.

Conclusions: The denial of recognition is experienced by everyone as an ordeal, where each member of the family has been assigned the status of foreigner both at school and at work.

Contribution: This article sheds light on the family, professional and migratory status. It reveals some of the often invisible consequences of the Charter of the French language on the educational career of certain children of migrant parents and the professional and migratory trajectory of the parents.

• change of migratory status
• educational path
• two-stage migration
• migrant family
• highly qualified migrants
• Charter of the French language

https://journals.openedition.org/efg/14305#article-14305