This follows record immigration in recent years, which has pushed Canada’s population to over 40 million. The country added more than a million new residents last year, with 98% of the increase due to immigration.
Toronto: Amid growing economic anxiety, a growing number of Canadians (44%) are questioning whether there is too much immigration into the country for the first time in decades.
This is one of the key findings of a new poll released Monday by the independent, non-profit Environics Institute for Survey Research.
“More than four-in-ten Canadians now strongly (23%) or somewhat (21%) agree that ‘there is too much immigration into Canada’, up 17 percentage points from a year ago and the largest one-year change ever recorded on this question,” the poll found.
They are still outnumbered by those who are satisfied with the level of immigration, at 51%, but the poll found that “Canadians are now significantly more likely than a year ago to say there is too much immigration into the country, dramatically reversing a decades-long trend. For the first time, a growing number of Canadians are questioning how many immigrants are arriving, rather than who they are and where they come from”.
The trend is clear when compared to last year’s data, when a whopping 69% of respondents disagreed that there was too much immigration, compared to only 27% who agreed.
“The latest Focus Canada research shows a significant jump in the proportion of Canadians who say the country is accepting too many immigrants, marking a dramatic reversal from a year ago when public support for immigration levels was at an all-time high, marking at the time a rising trend going back three decades,” the researchers said.
The change in sentiment is driven by economic pressures and a general sense of malaise in the country, not a rise in xenophobia, as the vast majority, 74%, continue to believe that overall immigration is good for Canada and its economy. Only 34% are satisfied with the way things are going in the country, while 58% aren’t. Inflation, the cost of living, housing affordability and other economic issues are of greatest concern to respondents.
The immigration figures are in line with those found in other recent surveys, as a September poll by Nanos found that 53% of Canadians want fewer immigrants. This follows record immigration in recent years, which has pushed Canada’s population to over 40 million. The country added more than a million new residents last year, with 98% of the increase due to immigration.
This trend in public perception is likely to influence the new immigration levels for the coming years, which are due to be announced on Wednesday by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Marc Miller.
