IRCC, Deputy Minister, Transition Binder, 2024 - Public Opinion Research on Canadians’ Attitudes Towards Immigration

January 2024

Views of Immigration Levels – Public Opinion Research

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has conducted regular telephone tracking surveys with Canadians since 1996 and online tracking surveys since 2018, along with focus groups. This research covers a wide range of topics, and the cornerstone has been Canadians’ views of immigration levels.

• Canadians’ support for immigration levels decreased substantially during 2023.
• The proportion of Canadians who say that the number of immigrants coming to Canada is “too many” rose by 13 percentage points between March 2023 and November 2023.
• This is the most concern about the rate of immigration to Canada that we have seen in nearly 20 years, and appears to be tied to increased concerns about immigration’s impact on housing and public services in Canada.

Source: IRCC Telephone Tracking Survey (January 1996 through March 2023)

Question: Do you feel that there are too many, too few or about the right number of immigrants coming to Canada?

Provincial and Territorial Support for Immigration - Public Opinion Research

• Between March 2023 and November 2023, concern about the number of immigrants coming to most provinces also increased by about 15 percentage points (with the exceptions of Quebec and Manitoba, where we see modest 5 point increases).
• Residents of Ontario and Prince Edward Island in particular, as well as British Columbia, Alberta, Nova Scotia, and Saskatchewan would prefer to see decreased rather than increased immigration. However, in Manitoba, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador, residents are divided on whether the current rate of immigration is too high or too low.

Source: IRCC Telephone Tracking Survey (March 2023)

Question: Do you feel that there are too many, too few or about the right number of immigrants coming to your province or territory?

Concerns about Housing and Public Services- Public Opinion Research

• Concern about pressure placed on housing prices by immigration has increased substantially in the past year an a half, rising from 34% in March 2022, to 45% in March 2023, to 56% in November 2023. Similarly, concern about pressure placed on public services rose from 51% in March 2023 to 59% in November 2023.
• Participants in IRCC’s Winter 2023 focus groups were asked what needs to happen for their communities to accommodate more immigrants. Across Canada, they were quick to raise concerns about housing shortages and affordability, health care and education.
• Concern about the rate of immigration to major cities and smaller centers alike increased between March and November 2023. Majorities in Toronto and Vancouver say that there are too many immigrants coming to their cities.
• Despite this, a majority of Canadians across the country see immigration as necessary to fill skill and labour shortages in their local economy, and want to see new immigrants encouraged to settle outside of Toronto, Vancouver, and Montréal.
• We do not find that Canadians’ increased concerns about immigration levels or immigration’s impact on housing and public services have extended to a substantial increase in negative views of immigrants themselves. Canadians’ attitudes towards the economic and social contributions of immigrants are not significantly different from what we saw prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in February 2020.

Source: IRCC Tracking Surveys and IRCC Focus Groups

International Students and Temporary Workers - Public Opinion Research

• Only a third of Canadians consider international students and short-term, lower-skilled temporary foreign workers (TFWs) to be high priorities among immigration categories, while three quarters of Canadians see workers with high-demand specialized skills (temporary or otherwise) as a high priority. (Environics Institute, September 2023)
• Informed that the number of international students has risen in recent years to 800,000 in 2022 and is expected to reach 900,000 in 2023, just over half of Canadians think that Canada should accept fewer international students. (Nanos, September 2023)
• Two thirds of Canadians support putting a cap on international students until the demand for affordable housing eases. (Ipsos, September 2023)
• Four fifths of Canadians believe that temporary foreign workers, recruited through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program to help employers fill jobs in Canada that are vacant, are important or somewhat important to the Canadian economy, and support employers hiring TFWs for jobs they can’t find Canadians to do. Just over half of Canadians support increasing the number of TFWs coming to Canada to fill jobs. (Nanos, December 2023)
• Two thirds of Canadians support allowing TFWs to stay in Canada as permanent residents, where interested. (Nanos, December 2023)

Sources: Environics Institute, September 2023: Telephone survey of 2,002 Canadians 18+ from September 4^th to 17^th, 2023.

Nanos, September 2023: Online survey (recruited via telephone) of 1,044 Canadians 18+ from September 2^nd to 4^th, 2023.

Ipsos, September 2023: Online panel survey of 1,500 Canadians 18+ from September 20^th to 22^nd, 2023.

Nanos, December 2023: Online survey (recruited via telephone) of 1,006 Canadians 18+ from December 27^th to 29^th, 2023.

Public Reactions to CUAET* - Public Opinion Research

*Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel

• A Privy Council Office August 2022 telephone survey found that three-quarters of Canadians supported the government bringing Ukrainians to Canada, while just 7% were opposed.
• In IRCC’s Winter 2023 focus groups, many participants expressed support for Canada having accepted 100,000 Ukrainians (as of early 2023). No participants expressed opposition.
• While only a few participants understood that Ukrainians were coming to Canada as extended visitors rather than as permanent residents, many expressed support for this approach, seeing it as appropriately expedient and un-bureaucratic.
• Participants were conscious of the speed and effectiveness with which the Ukrainian response was implemented versus other refugee resettlement efforts. Many saw this as unfair differential treatment for one population, and expressed support for applying the same approach to people who live in other armed conflict areas.
• Most participants expressed support for a pathway to permanent residence for Ukrainians, expressing discomfort with the idea of Ukrainians being told to leave, especially if they had been in Canada for a number of years. That said, some reacted negatively to the idea of a special pathway for Ukrainians, though this was often based on an expectation that a suitable pathway already existed.

Source: PCO Tracking Surveys and IRCC Focus Groups

Support for Resettling Afghan Refugees - Public Opinion Research

• Half of respondents to IRCC’s March 2023 Tracking Survey felt that “at least 40,000 Afghan refugees by the end of 2023” was either about right or too few. A third of respondents felt this was too many.
• Support for “the Government of Canada bringing a number of Afghan refugees to Canada” has dropped off over time: from 50% in March 2022, to 45% in March 2023, to 38% in November 2023. Over this time, however, opposition has only risen from 23% to 30%.
• Support for accepting “Afghans who closely assisted Canada’s efforts in Afghanistan,” for accepting “any Afghans fleeing persecution under the Taliban regime” and for accepting “the family members of Afghans who have been brought to Canada as refugees” are each higher than support for accepting “Afghan refugees” in general—suggesting that these reasons for resettling Afghans do resonate with some Canadians on the fence.
• When asked about refugees in general, two-thirds of respondents agree that “accepting refugees is part of Canada’s humanitarian tradition” and three-fifths agree that “Canada has a responsibility to do its part in accepting refugees.”

Source: IRCC Tracking Surveys