Canadians are less tolerant of immigration than Americans, new survey says

Canadians are less tolerant of uncontrolled immigration than Americans. Or so says a new survey.

The claim is based on an international poll carried out by Ipsos U.K. and provided to Global News, which found 69 per cent of Canadian respondents disagreed that Canada would be better off with completely uncontrolled immigration.

Canada tied with France and trailed only Israel, Belgium, Hungary and Serbia in opposition to the idea of letting in all immigrants who wish to enter.

By comparison, only 57 per cent of Americans agreed that they would be better off letting everyone in.

The problem is, however, that uncontrolled immigration doesn’t exist anywhere in the world.

“They are fairly extreme options of either having unlimited immigration versus stopping it altogether,” says Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees. “That’s fairly radical.”

Dench says she was surprised that the numbers were as high as they were in support of open borders.

Only 69 per cent disagreed.

“In terms of unlimited [immigration], I’m not surprised to see there’s not that many people who are open to that,” she tells Yahoo Canada News.

Twenty-four per cent of Canadians strongly or somewhat agreed that Canada would be stronger if immigration ceased.

The nature of the question has an impact on the results, says Barry Kay, an associate professor of political science at Wilfrid Laurier University and an expert in public opinion polling.

“It is inflammatory language,” Kay says.

He notes that looking at the poll in the context of Canada alone is misleading.

However, if the same “misleading behaviour” was used in global surveys, it would offer some insight into where Canadians stand in comparison to other countries, he says.

“Canada doesn’t look quite as inflamed as other countries on that particular question,” he says.

In the Ipsos poll, Canadians ranked 16 of 23 countries when asked if “immigrants take important social services away from real citizens.” Thirty-five per cent of Canadians said yes, compared to 63 per cent of Turks and 50 per cent of both Belgians and Hungarians and 46 per cent of Americans.

Canadians were again ranked 16th out of 23 countries when asked if “immigrants take jobs away from real citizens.” Thirty-two per cent of Canadians said yes, compared to 62 per cent of Turks, 51 per cent of Indians and 48 per cent of Argentinians.

Forty-three per cent of Americans agreed or tended to agree with the same statement.

When prompted with the statement: “These days I feel like a stranger in my own country,” 34 per cent of Canadians agreed or somewhat agreed, making Canada 20 of 23 nations. Fifty-seven per cent of Turks agreed, 54 per cent of South Africans, 49 per cent of Italians, 46 per cent of Brazilians and 45 per cent of Americans.

Sean Simpson, spokesperson for Ipsos Canada, says the survey was undertaken by Ipsos’ office in London, and was not sponsored.

“We’re simply trying to explore attitudes that may or may not be reflected in government policy, and exploring nativist sentiment and how it compares across countries,” he says in an email to Yahoo Canada News.

“There is upheaval happening in the world, and in many cases it is because governments are not reflecting the attitudes or beliefs of the people. This is why we’re seeing outsiders elected (i.e. Trump) and gaining more traction (i.e. Le Pen).”