Canadians are feeling more and more uneasy about immigration and its position in producing “financial pressure,” in accordance with a brand new survey carried out by the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.
Amongst different issues, the survey discovered that many Canadians imagine an excessive amount of consideration is being centered on newcomers and refugees, and that asylum seekers obtain too many advantages.
The survey landed two weeks after Ottawa introduced dramatic adjustments to its projected immigration numbers. On Sunday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau additionally stated in a web-based video that he ought to have acted extra shortly to handle issues with the immigration system.
The survey heard from 2,500 Canadians in each 2023 and 2024. This yr, it discovered {that a} majority — 56 per cent — stated they imagine refugees and asylum seekers “obtain too many advantages.” The report calls {that a} “important enhance” over the 49 per cent who stated the identical factor in 2023.
The survey additionally reported a “important lower” within the variety of Canadians who imagine immigration makes the nation higher — from 52 per cent in 2023 all the way down to 44 per cent this yr.
The 2024 survey additionally discovered that 41 per cent of Canadians imagine there’s “an excessive amount of consideration centered on the rights of newcomers.”
“Amongst responses acquired in open-ended inquiries, there was a notable enhance between 2023 and 2024 in sentiments that correlate immigration with financial pressure in Canada,” the report stated.
The CEO of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Isha Khan, informed Ontario Chronicle that “perceptions” about immigration are altering and the matter wants extra examine.
“That is a degree we actually must dig into,” Khan stated. “We have to perceive the place these perceptions are coming from and the way they affect our collective work.”
About 200 folks participate in a protest in Kanata, Ont., on Nov. 9, 2024 over the Metropolis of Ottawa’s tentative plans to deal with asylum shelters within the west-end suburb. (Félix Pilon/Radio-Canada)
Immigration was just one facet of the survey, entitled 2024 Foresights for Human Rights.
Whereas simply 11 per cent of respondents cited entry to inexpensive housing as a high human rights challenge, almost 60 per cent stated that proper to housing had weakened over the past decade.
The report stated that two in three respondents reported feeling optimistic about defending human rights in Canada, significantly Indigenous rights and gender fairness. Only one in three felt the identical about human rights overseas.
The report’s findings on immigration come after Trudeau launched a virtually seven-minute-long on-line explainer video through which he stated the federal authorities may have acted quicker to rein in immigration packages and blamed “unhealthy actors” for gaming the system.
WATCH | Trudeau on unhealthy actors and why Canada’s altering its immigration system
Trudeau launched the video partially to elucidate the current discount within the variety of everlasting residents being admitted to Canada, and adjustments to the momentary overseas employee program.
Over the following two years, the everlasting residency stream is being lowered by about 20 per cent to 365,000 in 2027.
Responding to Trudeau’s video, the Migrant Rights Community blasted the prime minister.
“His statements, which body migrants as disposable and blame them for systemic crises, perpetuate dangerous myths and deflect from coverage failures,” says an announcement from the group’s spokesperson Syed Hussan.
“The Migrant Rights Community strongly condemns this rhetoric, which obscures the very important position migrants play in constructing Canada’s financial system and communities, and requires everlasting residency standing for all migrants to guard their rights.”
The community stated Trudeau’s video and his authorities’s previous statements on immigration distract from the true causes of the housing disaster — company landlords and provincial governments that remove lease management and do not put money into public housing.
Hussan informed Ontario Chronicle that months of feedback from Liberal politicians about immigration have contributed to the rise in unfavourable emotions about migrants.
