Ten case study interviews were used to investigate how and why originally unilingual French-speaking families and their individual members are integrated into or assimilated by British Columbian society and whether the process entails additive or subtractive bilingualism. The study identifies the resources and strategies of families who have successfully adapted to life in British Columbia and makes recommendations to help make settlement on the West Coast easier for French-Canadian families A case study approach allowed the researcher to go beyond already available statistics. The families interviewed were from very different walks of life and had already made the choice to have their children educated either in French only, English only or both English and French. There were ten families and twenty-eight children represented. Some of the children were already adults and had children of their own but unfortunately the latter were still too young to be included in this study. A forty-four year interval separated the arrivals of the first- and last-arrived families and the second generation ranged between the ages of seven and forty. The study looks at the roles government agencies, the parish, the French society, French and French immersion schools and other organizations played in the lives of the families interviewed and how they could have been even more useful. It suggests also other means to enhance the preservation and development of the French language and culture in British Columbia.