Canadians Divided Over Immigration Quotas: Survey

Travellers arrive at Trudeau Airport in Montreal, on April 20, 2022. The Canadian Press/Graham Hughes

Canadians are divided over the country’s record-high immigration quotas, with more than half saying new residents are failing to assimilate, according to immigration department data.

“Half of Canadians, 51 percent, agree immigrants need to do more to integrate into Canadian society,” said in-house research by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. “Just under half of Canadians, 46 percent, agree Canada should focus on helping unemployed Canadians rather than looking for skilled immigrants to fill labour shortages.”

Support for the concept of immigration in general was less divided, with 67 percent of respondents saying that immigration is necessary for Canada to sustain economic growth in light of its aging population, according to the data as first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.

However, researchers said that support was accompanied by attitudes of “not right now,” or “how are we going to make this work?” They said these sentiments were also “partly underpinned by concerns about the impact of immigration on infrastructure.”

Some Canadians who were questioned in focus groups expressed unease with the social impact of immigration.

“About one-quarter of Canadians, 27 percent, agree immigration is causing Canada to change in ways they don’t like,” said the 2024 “Annual Tracking Study” report.

Findings were drawn from questionnaires with 3,000 people nationwide and 14 focus groups.

Cabinet’s current Immigration Levels Plan sets the 2024 quota at 485,000 new immigrants. Many of the Canadians surveyed, who were not aware of the immigration targets until they were presented to them, “could not fathom how cities, that are already receiving high volumes of immigrants and where infrastructure is already under great strain, could accommodate the proposed targets.”

“Too much,” researchers quoted one respondent as saying. “It’s making it harder for the average person who works here,” said another. “Immigration is good, but we don’t have the infrastructure,” said a third.

Divisions sharpened when the respondents were presented with the actual number of immigrants that had come to Canada.

A total of 52 percent in Alberta said the 485,000 quota was “too many,” while the concern was felt by 51 percent in Nova Scotia, 49 percent in Ontario and Prince Edward Island, 47 percent in Saskatchewan, 46 percent in British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador, 43 percent in New Brunswick, 38 percent in Quebec, and 37 percent in Manitoba.

Canada’s population has surged in recent years due to immigration, with Statistics Canada estimating in March the country’s population surpassed 41 million, less than a year after it hit 40 million. Statistics Canada also estimated there were more than 2.6 million non-permanent residents in Canada as of Jan. 1.