December 16, 2024 — The views immigration in Canada have changed. Within the last few years, attitudes in Canada towards immigration have shifted from embracing and welcoming newcomers, to wanting immigration to be halted or outright stopped.
Focus Canada, a public opinion research program from the Environics Institute for Survey Research, collected through telephone interviews research that indicated that nearly six in ten (58 percent) of Canadians believe the country has accepted too many immigrants. This is up 31 percent since 2022, marking the most rapid shift in immigration views the country has seen.
This changed view is accompanied by concerns towards housing, the economy, and population. The most mentioned problems according to Focus Canada that are facing Candians today are inflation/cost of living/gas prices, economy/interest rates/unemployment, and affordable housing.
One of the causes of souring attitudes towards immigration in Canada is the proportion of temporary foreign students in Canada as opposed to skilled workers. Many immigrants coming to Canada favour coming as students, as having time lived in Canada contributes to achieving permanent residence. This means that immigrants coming to Canada are entering without the work experience, business, academic, and trades skills that the country currently needs.
In response to these changing views, the federal government has adjusted its approach towards immigration for 2025 and onwards. Marc Miller, the Canadian Minister of Immigration, announced alterations to the government’s immigration levels plan. This consists of 395,000 in 2025 (down from the original 500,000), 380,000 in 2026 (down from 500,000 as well), and 365,000 in 2027.
With these new views towards immigrants in Canada, one might ask what this likely means for future Filipino perspectives to Canada and current Canadian Filipino residents, students, and temporary workers.
Likely, the new immigration policy will target primarily temporary foreign workers and international students in Canada, as the goal is to reduce temporary resident volumes to five percent from the current 6.2 percent (being 2.5 million people) by the end of 2026. This could mean about a 480,000 decrease in temporary residents. In the 2021 Statistics Canada census, it was found that there were 924,850 non-permanent residents in Canada, among them holding asylum claims, work permits, or student permits. Of this group, Filipinos only made up 3.6 percent, or approximately 33,000 people.
What will likely happen in the coming years is that a lower number of Filipinos will be entering Canada as temporary foreign workers or students.
For 2024, it is projected that Filipinos will make up 12 percent of new permanent residents to a total of 35,391, being the second highest group. Important to note is that permanent Filipino residents in Canada have seen a decrease since 2015, previously being 30 percent, ranking first for new Canadian permanent residents. This can be explained by the COVID-19 virus and economic recession in the Philippines affecting those able to immigrate.
Attitudes Canadians have towards Canadian Filipinos remain positive, despite soured attitudes towards immigration. From an AskCanada Reddit, the general attitude towards Filipino Candians trends positively, describing them as hard workers and family oriented.
This sentiment is also reflected by Statistics Canada, describing Canadian Filipinos “among the hardest working people in Canada.” Nearly 80 percent of Canadian Filipinos older than 15 were working or job searching in 2022, being the highest labour force participation among Candians, where the national average of 65.4 percent.
The future of immigration in Canada may be one of reduced numbers and potentially increased tensions. For Canadian Filipinos and all, it will be more difficult to get into the country than before.
John (Jack) L. Peters is Canadian Filipino Net’s new community relations officer. One of the things he will be doing is write articles about a range of issues relevant to Canadian Filipinos. Peters received his bachelor's degree in International Relations at the University of British Columbia in 2023. He was raised in Vancouver experiencing both Canadian and Filipino culture. Being exposed to Filipino culture through his mother, Peters is excited to learn more about this aspect of his life. Researching political issues has always been a passion of his, and is looking forward to deepening his understanding on Canadian-Filipino relations with the canadianfilipino,net team. Peters taught English in Japan for one year at Kumamoto City, for a public junior high and elementary school. For leads and suggestions, you can reach Peters at
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