By Jeffrey Reitz
Canada, a country that has traditionally welcomed immigrants, has remained strongly pro-immigration. This is reflected in policies mandating comparatively high immigration levels and in the fact that public opinion generally supports immigration. Clearly, Canada is an exception to the negative attitude toward immigration that prevails in most other industrialized countries, an attitude that has received much attention, particularly in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and France. Canada’s exceptionalism when it comes to immigration is reflected in cross-national comparisons of public opinion presented recently in a report by the German Marshall Fund, which also indicated that Canadians were more likely to see immigration as an opportunity than as a problem. A 23-country Ipsos poll released in August 2011 again confirmed a marked Canadian exceptionalism. What accounts for Canadian attitudes to immigration? To determine the answer, this study examines available Canadian public opinion data, including trend data, and offers a detailed analysis of a Focus Canada opinion survey conducted by the Environics Institute in November 2010. The study attempts to clarify the social bases of popular support for high immigration levels in Canada and considers political party cleavages and potential sources or processes of change. Such an analysis may help us to understand why the opposition to immigration seen in other countries is not more prominent in Canada, and whether there are any indications that Canadian attitudes have begun to turn in a more negative direction or might do so in the future.
