The majority of Canadians think that there are “too many” immigrants in Canada, according to a new Leger poll, a sentiment that has steadily been on the rise since 2019.
The Leger survey published on Wednesday was conducted for the Association of Canadians Studies and revealed a rather dramatic national consensus on the issue.
While just over a fifth of respondents said that they thought Canada’s immigration levels were “about the right number,” and around 2% there were “too few” immigrants, 65% said there are too many.
“The rise in the extent to which Canadians believe that there are too many immigrants is continuing and has yet again reached a new height,” chief executive of the ACS Jack Jedwab told the National Post.
“Virtually no one in Canada currently thinks that there are too few immigrants.”
He went on to say that the findings were unsurprising, given that all recent polling has revealed a persistent and growing dissatisfaction among Canadians on the Trudeau government’s immigration targets.
Leger conducted a similar poll in 2019 which found just 35% of Canadians thought there were “too many” immigrants, while 49% thought it was “about the right number.”
However, Canadian sentiment has undergone a major transformation over the last five years, with 49% of respondents saying there were “too many” last year, which ticked up to 50% in February before jumping up to 60% in July.
That sentiment is presently felt highest in rural communities at 69.4%, while 62.9% of those living in urban areas share that assertion.
Men are slightly more likely to feel that way than women, at 43% and 38%, respectively.
“There is a growing national consensus that there are too many immigrants that transcends the presence of newcomers in your community and most demographic factors, including whether or not you identify with an ethnic or racialized group,” said Jedwab.
In terms of respondent’s ethnicity, those who identified as white were more likely to have a positive view of immigration at 51%, compared to those who identified as a minority at 48%.
“What’s different in this survey is that negative sentiment towards immigrants is noticeably on the rise and has also reached levels not seen in the last two decades,” said Jedwab.
Respondent’s socioeconomic status was likely to influence some in their perception of immigration policy, with the cohort most opposed to high levels of immigration also being the lowest earning.
Nearly half, 47%, of respondents who made under $40,000 a year were opposed.
Those who earned $40,000 to $59,000 expressed the lowest level of disapproval at 36%, however, making the correlation less obvious as respondents making between $80,000 and $99,000 were the second most opposed at 46%.
According to Jedwab, while socioeconomic factors play a role, they can’t be the sole reason attributed to the anti-immigration narrative gaining momentum.
He noted that global instability should also be considered and the strains which can accompany a multicultural society.
“Economics is driving most of the concern,” he said. “The tone of immigration debates outside of Canada is influencing sentiment here as is global instability and its impact on domestic relations between various communities.”