60% of Canadians feel Canada doesn’t need more migrants: Survey

The plan for the three years ahead is expected to be tabled in Parliament during the ongoing fall session. While numbers in both permanent and temporary categories have been tempered over the last two years, the explosive increase in newcomers under the government of then prime minister Justin Trudeau has led to escalating anti-immigrant feeling in Canada, sometimes bordering on xenophobia.

A recent survey conducted by the polling firm Leger for the Association for Canadian Studies found that 60% of respondents felt the country did not need new immigrants. At 63%, that figure was higher for the cohort defined as non-immigrants, though immigrants favoured the intake by a slim margin of 52% for with 48% against.

What was even more startling is that a greater percentage of Canadians now appear to favour assimilation by newcomers as compared to Americans. At least 51% of Canadians surveyed agreed with the statement that immigrants “should give up their customs and traditions and adopt those of the majority.” This contrasts with just 29% of Americans who shared the same view. Canada has often positioned itself as a multicultural nation as against the American melting pot.

“The study concludes with a comparison between Canada and the United States on the issue of immigrant integration which paradoxically suggests that Americans are far less concerned than Canadians about immigrants giving up their customs and traditions and adopting those of the majority. So much for Canada describing itself as the mosaic and the US as the Melting Pot,” the Association for Canadian Studies said.

The recent anti-immigration turn in Canada is exemplified by graffiti that was spraypainted at a prominent location, next to a children’s park, in the Greater Toronto Area or GTA town of Mississauga over the weekend. It read, “Indian rats” and is part of a trend of the targeting of the community, the most visible and largest cohort among new immigrants.

In a statement, the Canadian chapter of the Coalition of Hindus of North America or CoHNA said, “This is not an isolated incident; it is part of a growing pattern of racism, intimidation, and Hinduphobia faced by Indo Canadians and Hindus across the country. The hate is growing more visible but the actions from law enforcement and lawmakers have not kept pace.”