Immigration has never been higher, and Canadians have never been more pleased with it

By Vancouver Sun |

As immigration surges to its highest levels in Canadian history, a new poll finds that Canada remains one of the most pro-immigration countries on Earth.

According to a telephone survey of 2,000 Canadians conducted by the Environics Institute, record-high numbers of Canadians agree with the notion that Canada “needs more immigrants.” This is in tandem with record low numbers of Canadians who report a belief that “immigration levels are too high.”

Environics surveyors found that 58 per cent of respondents agreed with the notion that “Canada needs more immigrants to increase its population.” This was an almost 180-degree turn from the sentiments of 30 years ago; the report cited a similar poll from 1993 in which 77 per cent of respondents said they didn’t want immigrants growing the population.

A similar phenomenon seemed to characterize the Canadian notion that immigration levels were too high. Environics cited historical poll data from 1977 to show that 61 per cent of Canadians favoured curbing immigration rates. In their latest survey, that was down to just 27 per cent.

The poll, which comes out roughly every year, was commissioned by the Century Initiative, a group with the explicit goal of growing Canada’s population to 100 million by 2100.

Nevertheless, it’s in keeping with other poll data showing that Canadians are generally pleased with immigration.

In 2019, the Angus Reid Institute conducted a particularly comprehensive survey of Canadian sentiments on immigration. Although the figures weren’t as decisive as those found by Environics, Angus Reid found that Canadians generally saw immigration as critical to the economy, and weren’t inclined to see immigrants as threats to their own jobs.

Read more