What do Canadians think about immigration and refugees today, and how has this changed over the past year?

As part of its Focus Canada public opinion research program (launched in 1976), the Environics Institute updated its research on Canadian attitudes about immigration and refugees. This survey was conducted in partnership with the Century Initiative. This survey is based on telephone interviews conducted (via landline and cellphones) with 2,000 Canadians between September 7 and 23, 2021 A sample of this size drawn from the population produces results accurate to within plus or minus 2.2 percentage points in 19 out of 20 samples.

Executive summary

The past year in Canada has been like no other due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which persists on the strength of new variants despite a monumental vaccination campaign. Governments have striven to manage the new pandemic reality through programs supporting lost income and employment, and policies to balance public health restrictions with the resumption of normal activity. As the country moved past the crisis phase, the politics and issues of the pre-pandemic past have begun to resurface. Immigration and refugees (and multiculturalism more broadly) have not been front and centre over the past year, and were largely absent as an issue during the recent federal election. But some may be wondering how much the difficulties and stress of the past year have affected Canadians’ capacity for openness to others.

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