October 1, 2024 — Canada has long been known as a nation welcoming to immigrants.
However, worsening economic woes appear to be fueling a backlash against newcomers.
Surveys reveal that more and more Canadians are feeling that the country is taking in too many immigrants.
A poll conducted exclusively for the National Post newspaper by market research firm Leger showed that 65 percent of Canadians believe that the federal Liberal government’s current immigration targets are too high.
The government plans to bring in 500,000 newcomers in 2025 and the same number in 2026.
In a report, the National Post quoted Andrew Enns, an executive vice-president with Leger, saying that attitudes toward immigration have been hardening over the past few years.
“What’s starting to happen now is that we’re starting to see Canadians, rightly or wrongly, are connecting a few issues to immigration,” Enns said.
The Leger poll shows that 78 percent of respondents believe high immigration levels are contributing to the housing shortage.
In addition, 76 percent said that immigration is having an impact on health care.
Leger’s poll was conducted between August 23 and 25, 2024.
With its popularity tanking among voters, the federal Liberal government has taken steps to rein in the entry of foreigners.
In August 2024, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages Randy Boissonnault announced that the government will introduce new restrictions to the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program.
As an example, employers will only be authorized to hire 10 percent of their total workforce through the TFW Program.
However, exceptions are being granted for seasonal and non-seasonal jobs in the construction, health care, and food security.
Moreover, the federal government will reject applications for Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIA) for low-wage jobs.
On September 4, 2024, the Angus Reid Institute, a market research company, reported that concerns by Canadians over immigration has “risen four-fold over the last two years”.
One-in-five or 21 percent of people in Canada say that “Immigration/refugees” is one of the top issues facing the country.
Angust Reid noted that this level ties with those concerned with climate change (21 percent).
Also, the percentage is above the 19 percent who think that public safety is a key challenge in Canada.
Angus Reid suggested that the concern over immigration “perhaps represents a ripple effect from Canada’s booming population driven by immigrants, both temporary and permanent”.
“Another may be unemployment, especially among younger Canadians, who encountered an especially difficult summer job market influenced by a growing number of temporary foreign workers.”
For perspective, Angus Reid also reported that the concern over immigration is “still surpassed as an issue by the rising cost of living (57%), health care (45%) and housing affordability (32%) in the eyes of Canadians”.
The Environics Institute for Survey Research has been tracking the shifting public opinion about immigration.
On October 30, 2023, Environics and Century Initiative released a report indicating that Canadians are significantly more likely than a year ago to say there is too much immigration.
This shows a reversal of the longstanding trend of welcoming newcomers to the country.
“More than four in ten Canadians now strongly (23%) or somewhat (21%) agreeing with the
statement, ‘there is too much immigration to Canada,’ up 17 percentage points from one year ago and the largest one-year change ever recorded on this question.
“Those who agree with this statement are most likely to cite concerns that newcomers may be contributing to the current housing crisis (38% of this group give this reason) compared to only 15% in 2022,” the report stated.
On September 1, 2024, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged businesses to hire and train more Canadian workers.
“We no longer need as many temporary foreign workers,” Trudeau said.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has criticized Trudeau over the government’s management of immigration, saying the prime minister “brought in so many people”.
If he becomes prime minister, Poilievre’s plan includes scaling back the international student program.
“We’re going to bring home the international student system we had before Justin Trudeau. Which was a modest number of young people who were extremely promising could come here and study, and if they excel, they followed the law, they learned English or French, they could join the Canadian family,” Poilievre said.
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