French-Canadian Heritage and Language Loss
As the youngest of five siblings, Joe Boucher learned many skills from his older brothers and sister, including how to ride a bike, navigate the forests behind their home, skate, and play hockey. However, one skill he did not acquire from them was speaking French.
Both of Boucher's parents were of French-Canadian descent and spoke French with each other, but due to historical restrictions, French was not taught in schools in Maine, where the Boucher family lived. Consequently, his siblings defaulted to speaking English among themselves.
"Shame was heaped upon French speakers as being second-class citizens,"
Boucher recalls.
More than one million French-Canadians migrated from Canada to the New England region of the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries, primarily seeking employment in mills and farms. At that time, Canadian law made it difficult for Canadians to pass citizenship to children born in the US, resulting in generations of so-called "lost Canadians."
New Citizenship Law and Its Impact
A new law enacted in December aims to address this historical inequity by allowing not only children of Canadians but anyone who can prove an ancestral connection to claim Canadian citizenship.
Between 15 December 2025 and 31 January 2026, Canadian immigration officials received 12,430 applications under this law. Of these, 6,280 applications were processed, and 1,480 applicants were granted citizenship.
The law came into effect during the final months of President Donald Trump's first year of his second term, which some view as timely.
"We sort of feel the ground shifting under our feet a little bit these days,"
Boucher told the BBC.
"It's nice to know that the connectivity to the home country, as it were, is there."
Boucher is currently applying for "proof" of citizenship. Under the new law, descendants are automatically considered Canadian; the application serves to verify this status rather than to obtain citizenship. The application fee is C$75 ($55; £40), but additional costs for genealogists, record retrieval, and legal assistance can increase total expenses to several thousand dollars.
Genealogical Challenges and Demand
Applicants must demonstrate their Canadian ties, sometimes tracing back many generations, by consulting historical documents such as census records, baptismal certificates, and birth certificates.
This demand has kept Montreal genealogist Ryan Légère extremely busy, to the point where he is considering hiring additional staff.
"What was kind of like a side business has turned into full time,"
Légère told the BBC.
"It's completely taken over my life."
Légère expressed concerns about the law's unintended consequences, noting that it was passed following an Ontario court ruling that limiting citizenship to first-generation descendants was unconstitutional.
"Many institutions appear to be overwhelmed, understaffed, and not fully prepared for the volume of requests received over the past few months,"
he said.
He also highlighted difficulties applicants face in tracing Canadian ancestors. In Quebec, birth certificates were not standardized until the 1990s; prior to that, births were often recorded in parish baptismal records, which are in French and written in old-fashioned, difficult-to-read script. Additionally, family surnames frequently changed across generations, as many anglicized their names after moving to the United States. For example, Desjardins might become Gardner, and Bonenfant might become Goodchild.
Application Process and Eligibility
A spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada stated that each application is "reviewed on a case-by-case basis to determine eligibility." Applicants must submit official documents, as online genealogy sites cannot be used as sole evidence.
Légère emphasized that the primary challenge is how Canada will manage the influx of applicants.
The new law does not specify a limit on how far back a qualifying ancestor can be. However, going forward, Canadian parents must have resided in Canada for more than 1,095 days to pass citizenship to their children.
Applicants must trace their lineage to a parental relative—parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, etc.—who became a Canadian citizen on or after 1 January 1947, the date when the first Canadian Citizenship Act was enacted.
Even with these restrictions, millions of Americans nationwide could potentially qualify.
Motivations for Seeking Dual Citizenship
Whether these new Canadians will relocate to Canada remains uncertain.
Tim Cyr, another individual from Maine with French-Canadian ancestry, believes relocation is unlikely. Like Boucher, he cites the Trump presidency as a factor motivating the pursuit of dual citizenship.
"We're facing something I never thought we'd face in a million years,"
he said.
"It's not a great time to have an American passport."
While Cyr enjoys visiting Canada, he does not plan to move there soon.
"I'm mostly interested in dual citizenship, I hope we can get through what we are in."
Boucher, however, emphasizes that his interest in Canada goes beyond seeking an escape.
"I keep coming back to the idea of identity,"
he said.
People "hear my last name and know that I am of French descent and they make a false connection to the European tropes of a Parisian lifestyle".
"I have zero connection to any of that. My ancestors arrived in Canada 400 years ago and spent generations creating communities and cultivating the land in Quebec and Acadie. This is the family I know and this is in large part who I am."
Growing up, Boucher's father was proud of their French-sounding surname and the history of the Acadian people, including their culture and music. The Acadians were French settlers in eastern Canada. When Britain took control of the region in the mid-18th century, approximately 10,000 Acadians were expelled to the United States, settling in New England and other areas such as Louisiana.
Boucher is now a musician who celebrates his French-Canadian heritage, even adapting Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem about the Acadian expulsion, Evangeline, into a song.
When asked if he would move to Canada, Boucher hesitated.
"My life is very much here, we've got three children and extended family and my wife grew up in New York City,"
he said.
"But there could be a time in the future… I've fantasised about living there for many years."
