We must not allow immigration to become a major cultural concern for Canadians

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John Ibbitson is a writer and journalist. Darrell Bricker is CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs. They are the authors of the forthcoming book, Breaking Point: The New Big Shifts Putting Canada at Risk.

Immigration resentments tear at the societies of the United States and Britain, where many citizens fear that newcomers are undermining their country’s culture.

But polls show that, while a majority of Canadians believe that immigration levels are too high, they worry mostly about the impact of new arrivals on housing, employment, and social services. The impact on culture, not so much.

That attitude could be changing, as resentments over immigration pressures rise. There must be no higher priority for the federal government than to correct abuses and restore confidence in the system, before those resentments increase.

At all costs, immigration must not be allowed to become a major cultural concern for Canadians.

Where does Canada’s immigration system go from here?

In September, 2024, the Environics Institute found that almost six in 10 Canadians (58 per cent) believed immigration levels were too high, an increase of 14 percentage points from the year before.

“For the first time in a quarter century, a clear majority of Canadians say there is too much immigration,” the survey concluded. Respondents raised concerns about housing, the state of the economy, and about how the immigration system was being managed.

These concerns emerged in the wake of news that the country’s population had increased by two million people from the beginning of 2022 to the end of 2023.

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Investigations revealed that hundreds of thousands of temporary foreign workers and international students were flooding the work force, and that asylum claims had doubled in recent years.

No wonder, then, that a Leger poll from August, 2024, found that 65 per cent of respondents considered immigration levels to be too high. The main reasons cited for that opposition were the impact of immigration on health care and housing.

But the Environics poll noted that, for the first time, a majority of respondents (57 per cent) believed immigrants were not adopting Canadian values.

Opinion: Our immigration system should focus on economic growth, not short-term political gain

“An increasing number of Canadians are expressing doubts about who is being admitted to the country and how well they are integrating into Canadian society,” the authors of the report noted.

The conclusion is clear. Over the past couple of years, Canadians have become concerned about an immigration system running out of control and placing strains on housing and social services. And concerns about the failure of immigrants to integrate are rising, though they are not yet dominant.

Now look south.

In a deeply divided and polarized America, six in 10 Republicans agreed with the statement made by Donald Trump, then the Republican presidential nominee, that illegal immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country,” according to a PRRI survey from October, 2024. Thirty per cent of Independents and only 13 per cent of Democrats concurred.

Then look east.

Recent Ipsos polls report that immigration is now the most important issue for voters in Britain and that about 55 per cent believe immigration levels are too high. Nigel Farage’s anti-immigrant Reform UK Party is favoured to win the next election.

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But the British are very selective in which type of immigration they most oppose. The Migration Observatory, a non-profit organization based at Oxford University, reports that six in 10 Britons were happy to allow some or many immigrants from Australia to enter. Only three in ten felt the same about new arrivals from Pakistan.

Put all this together and the difference between Canada and the two largest members of the Anglosphere becomes stark. While Canadians still focus primarily on the impact of new arrivals on housing and social services, many conservative Americans see immigrants as a cultural threat, while Britons possess a race-and-culture-based hierarchy of who is most welcome.

Within Canada, Quebec is always sensitive about language and identity. But compared to the U.S. and Britain, the cultural backlash toward immigrants in Canada is still relatively muted. The central concern is the ability of governments to manage the flow.

That has enormous political consequences.

Opinion: Canada needs a coherent immigration policy – not another piecemeal fix

In the United States, resentment of immigrants is a proven path to electoral success, as Donald Trump and the Republican Party have amply demonstrated. Polls show that seven in 10 Republicans believe in the Great Replacement Theory, a conspiratorial belief that Democratic elites are trying to submerge white, Christian culture beneath a wave of non-white immigrants.

Elon Musk has said one of his prime motivations for supporting Mr. Trump was the entrepreneur and inventor’s belief that Democrats were importing undocumented immigrants in an effort to tip the electoral balance in their favour.

Mr. Musk was a featured speaker, via video link, at a British rally on Sept. 13, when more than 100,000 anti-immigrant demonstrators flooded the streets of London.

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In contrast, a motley crew of protesters holding an anti-immigrant rally in Toronto that same day were outnumbered by opposing pro-immigrant supporters. No major national party in Canada opposes immigration.

Canada’s multicultural mosaic reinforces tolerance. According to the 2021 census, more than a quarter of Canada’s population (26.5 per cent), identified as racialized, twice the level identified in the census of 2001. Statscan estimates that by 2041, half of Canada’s population will consist of immigrants and their Canadian-born children, if current trends continue.

But confidence in Canada’s immigration system has been shaken by the belief that the system is out of control. In response, the federal Liberals have announced cuts to the level of permanent residents, temporary foreign workers and international students allowed into Canada, while taking steps to expedite the asylum claim process.

The risk of resentment remains. If political leaders are unable to do what it takes to restore confidence in this country’s immigration system, we could see in Canada what we are seeing elsewhere: whites resenting non-whites; rural residents estranged from urban; ideologies hardening and polarizing; and resentment toward immigrants becoming the dominant political issue.

You have only to look south or east to see what happens after that.