The past year has seen Canada gradually emerge from the persistent grip of COVID-19, but the country has yet to return to pre-pandemic stability. Public attention has shifted to other pressing matters including spiking inflation and plunging housing affordability, a health care system teetering into crisis, regional weather-related catastrophes, and the apparent emergence of right wing politics with the Freedom Convoy occupation in Ottawa and polarizing new leaders at the federal and provincial levels. How is all of this affecting Canadians’ capacity to welcome the expanding flow of immigrants into the country and their communities?
The latest Focus Canada research reveals that, despite the many disruptions and challenges facing Canadians today, the public as a whole has never been more supportive of their country’s welcoming path when it comes to immigration and refugees. Even as the country is now taking in more than 400,000 newcomers each year, seven in ten Canadians express support for current immigration levels – the largest majority recorded on Environics surveys in 45 years. This view is driven in large part by what is now an established public consensus that immigration is important to the country’s economy, along with increasing acknowledgement that Canada needs people from other countries in order to keep its population growing.
Survey Details
The survey was conducted in partnership with Century Initiative. This survey is based on telephone interviews conducted (via landline and cellphones) with 2,000 Canadians between September 6 and 30, 2022. A sample of this size drawn from the population produces results accurate to within plus or minus 2.2 percentage points in 19 out of 20 samples.
Focus Canada
Focus Canada is the longest running and most comprehensive public opinion research program on public policy issues in Canada.
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