Most Canadians hold positive views about immigration and its impacts on Canada’s economy

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A majority of Canadians continue to hold positive views about immigration and its impact on Canada’s economy, a new public opinion survey has found. Conducted in February, the annual Focus Canada survey by the Environics Institute and the Canadian Race Relations Foundation interviewed 2,000 Canadians over the age of 18.

Despite the hardening of views against immigrants in the United States and Europe, the study found that most Canadians continue to view immigration in a mainly positive light

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Canadians as a whole continue to be more positive than negative about the current levels of immigrants coming to this country, and with the legitimacy of refugees who have been arriving,” the study says, noting that “worldwide, Canadians are among the most accepting of immigrants in their country.” Overall, 60 percent of those surveyed expressed a favorable view of immigration. This jumped to 80 percent who see immigration having a positive impact on Canada’s economy. Only 16 percent of Canadians disagreed with this view.

“The positive impact of immigration is the majority view across the population, and the upward shift is evident across most groups but especially in Quebec and the western provinces, while holding steady in the Atlantic provinces and Ontario,” the study notes.

The survey results, were published on the same day Statistics Canada revealed that international migration was the main driver of an increase in the country’s population in the last quarter of 2017. It also follows a report on Atlantic provinces believe the retention of immigrants to the region is crucial for its economic survival.

Integration concerns waning

Across Canada, positive opinions on immigration and refugees are more widespread in the province of British Columbia, where 66 percent disagreed with the view that “overall, there is too much immigration in Canada.” The same percentage of Canadians aged 18 to 29 and second-generation Canadians also disagreed, as did 69 per cent of Canadians with a university degree.

Negative views of immigration and refugees were more widespread in the province of Alberta, among Canadians above the age of 60 and those with only a high school education.

Alberta also led Canadian provinces in the number of respondents who believed too few immigrants were adopting Canadian values (62 percent). This view, meanwhile, was lowest in British Columbia and Manitoba / Saskatchewan, where 46 percent of respondents shared this view.

90% of Canadians feel their city is good for immigrants

Environics also shared the findings of the 2017 Gallup World Poll, which is conducted each year in 140 countries. This study found Canadians holding some of the most positive views about their cities as a welcoming place for immigrants

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More than nine in 10 Canadians (92 percent) said the city or area where they live is “a good place” for immigrants.
“Canadian public opinion on their community as a place for immigrants is significantly more positive than for all other 34 OECD countries (where the average is 65 percent), and has been consistently so since 2006,” the study says.
Overall, Canada was ranked third by Gallup’s Migrant Acceptance Index, which measures comfort levels and attitudes to immigrants. Only Iceland and New Zealand outranked Canada.
These findings mirror the recently released World Happiness Report, which surveys immigrants about their sense of well-being in their adopted countries. Canada ranked seventh in the world in terms of immigrant happiness, which Environics said parallels that of native-born Canadians.

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