A slew of recent public opinion polls on Canadian attitudes toward immigrants and refugees — the latest one commissioned by the CBC — suggest our views toward immigrants and refugees are hardening.
The CBC poll by Public Square Research and Maru/Blue released Wednesday found 57% of the 4,500 adults participating in an online panel said Canada should not be accepting more refugees.
The survey also found 64% said illegal immigration is becoming a serious problem, 56% believe that accepting too many immigrants will change Canada and 24% say too many immigrants are visible minorities.
Recent polls by Ipsos, Ekos, Leger and Angus Reid have produced similar findings.
Reaction to these polls by Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen, who wants to increase Canada’s intake of both immigrants and refugees, and by other immigration advocates, has been similar.
It’s that first, Canadians don’t understand that a steady flow of immigrants is necessary for our economic well-being, in order to provide present and future workers, given our low birth rates.
And second, that growing opposition to refugees is part of a rising global trend of intolerance prompted by the millions of displaced people fleeing wars in the Mideast over the past four years, with many ending up in Europe.
To be sure, not every poll has mirrored these findings, indicating, as if we didn’t already know, that the answers to any poll depend on what questions are asked.
For example, an Environics Institute poll of 2,000 Canadians released in April, found 59% disagreed with the statement, “overall there is too much immigration in Canada” while 77% agreed, “overall, immigration has a positive impact on the economy of Canada.”
Over half, 53%, agreed immigrants tend to work harder than people born in Canada, while 45% said immigration is making Canada a better place compared to only 15% who said it is making Canada worse, with 33% saying it has made no difference, while 7% have no opinion.
One problem with polling and reporting on these issues is that they tend to lump “immigrants” and “refugees” together, when they are separate issues to which different government policies apply.
But the most glaring thing about how these polls are perceived by those who are most often asked to comment on them by the media — government (Liberal) politicians, academics and immigration and refugee advocates — is how the public is consistently portrayed as at best ignorant and at worse racist in their views about immigration and refugee policy.
Seldom, if ever, is there any admission, for example, that if Canadian attitudes toward refugees have hardened, it’s the logical consequence of watching over 40,000 irregular/illegal (take your pick) border crossers entering Canada at so-called “unmanned” border crossing from the U.S. since 2017, with a rejection rate (so far) of 45%.
Or that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberals — after more than two years of condemning any criticism of how they bungled this issue, starting with Trudeau’s #WelcomeToCanada tweet in January 2017, as racist — suddenly reversed course and toughened the rules for asylum seekers in April, as their critics had demanded.
The irony is that if the recent polls suggesting toughening attitudes towards immigrants and refugees by Canadians are accurate, then leading up to the Oct. 21 election, Trudeau, Hussen and the rest of the Liberal chorus will be campaigning under the operating belief that the majority of Canadians are racists.
And that only they can save us from ourselves.
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