Support for immigration targets is plummeting across the country. Between 2022 and 2023, the proportion of Canadians likely to say there are too many immigrants in the country jumped 17%, radically reversing a decades-old trend.
This year, Canada crossed the milestone of 40 million inhabitants due to an ever-increasing migratory flow. Only 27% of Canadians considered last year that “Canada welcomes too many immigrants.” This year, 44% say this, an exceptional growth of 17% in public opinion.
This probability survey was partly carried out and financed by the organization “Initiative du Siècle”, which promotes the idea of reaching a population of 100 million inhabitants by 2100.
“We have already seen periods where opinion remained in flux, but this is a jump. We can say that this is unheard of,” analyzes Andrew Parkin, one of the researchers behind this study. We have to go back to the early 2000s to observe such reluctance towards immigration thresholds.
Economy and housing crisis
It is not the cultural unease that new Canadians can cause that is causing this about-face in public opinion, the statistical report emphasizes. It is rather the difficult economic context and the housing shortage which are the basis of this new reluctance.
“This does not mean that immigrants are the cause of the housing crisis or the lack of affordable housing,” observes Andrew Parkin. It’s more: “is this the right time to think about increasing [leur nombre] ?” »
Despite everything, a majority (51%) of Canadians still reject the idea that immigration levels are too high. And very few see immigrants as a problem in themselves.
“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’s 4%. »
Quebec more open
Quebec follows the Canadian trend, but remains the territory where the feeling remains the most open to newcomers.
About a third (37%) of Quebecers consider that there are too many immigrants, compared to 50% in Ontario, and 46% in the rest of Canada.
Quebec’s vision of this issue has evolved greatly since the 1990s. No less than 57% of Quebecers considered, in 1993, that immigrants “threatened the culture of Quebec”. Only 38% hold this opinion today.
This report is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.