Support for current immigration goals is declining. Between 2022 and 2023, the share of Canadians who are likely to say there are too many immigrants in the country rose by 17 percentage points, radically reversing a decades-old trend.
About 27% of Canadians said last year that “Canada welcomes too many immigrants.” This year, 44% say so, a record growth of 17 points.
This data comes from a probability survey conducted and funded in part by the Initiative du siècle organization, which promotes the idea of a population of 100 million inhabitants by the year 2100.
“We have already experienced periods where opinions remained fluid, but this is a leap. We can say that this is unprecedented,” explains Andrew Parkin, one of the researchers on this study. We have to go back to the early 2000s to observe such reluctance on immigration thresholds.
This shift in attitudes affects both the wealthiest Canadians (+20%) and first-generation immigrants (+20%). It also affects supporters of the Liberals (+11%), the New Democrats (+9%) and the Conservatives (+21%).
Economic and real estate crisis
It is not the cultural discomfort that new Canadians may provoke that is causing this shift in public opinion, the report emphasizes. Rather, it is the difficult economic conditions and the housing shortage that underlie the new reluctance.
“This does not mean that immigrants are the cause of the housing crisis or the lack of affordable housing,” says Andrew Parkin. Rather, the question is, “Given the housing crisis, is this a good time for more immigration?” It’s a nuance. […] The economic context affects everyone equally. Immigrants who also want to buy a house are also affected. »
Despite all this, a majority (51%) of Canadians still reject the idea that immigration rates are too high. And very few see immigrants as their own problem.
“Some say we are using the housing crisis as an excuse to turn against immigrants. It’s not that. The number of Canadians who say immigration makes their community worse is just 9%. In Quebec it is 4%. »
Quebec is more open
Quebec follows the Canadian trend, but remains the area where the general mood is most open to newcomers. About a third (37%) of Quebecers think there are too many immigrants, compared to 50% in Ontario and 46% in the rest of Canada.
Quebec’s view on this issue has evolved greatly since the 1990s. As many as 57% of Quebecers in 1993 believed that immigrants “threatened Quebec culture”; Only 38% hold this opinion today.
Canada’s population exceeded 40 million this year, largely due to ever-increasing migration flows.
This report is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.