Revisiting an anti-immigrant Quebec City reveals a twist

Norimitsu Onishi, a New York Times reporter, traveled to Hérouxville, Quebec to learn what that had happened in the 15 years since the city adopted its xenophobic immigration code.

ImageThe town hall of Hérouxville, Quebec.Credit...Nasuna Stuart-Ulin for The New York Times

For such a small town, Hérouxville, with a population of 1,336, has played a big role in the history of Quebec . In 2007, the city council passed a "code of conduct" for immigrants that warned against certain activities, such as stoning women in public, burning them alive, or treating them as slaves. No one had actually asked for advice, perhaps because Hérouxville had no immigrants.

The code tapped into a deep-rooted cultural anxiety in the province's French-speaking Quebec majority. Does immigration threaten culture? Dilute it? Change it? For better or for worse?

The code of conduct — which drew support, mockery and condemnation in the province — led to the creation of one of the most famous commission governments of the last generation: the so-called Bouchard-Taylor Commission, named after the two eminent scholars who headed it, Gérard Bouchard and Charles Taylor. The commission held public hearings across Quebec, which served as giant group therapy sessions for a province that had long been agonized over questions of identity.

On my recent trip back in Hérouxville, I found that the city had made a 180 degree turn. I was welcomed with open arms by Mr. Thompson, a welcome the city now extends to immigrants. The county of Mékinac, which includes Hérouxville and nine other small towns, has implemented a comprehensive...