Newcomers to Canada facing a crisis of confidence
From: Institute for Canadian Citizenship
Image credit: Liza Summer on Pexels
A new national survey conducted by Leger on behalf of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC) – Canada’s leading citizenship organization and the world’s foremost voice on citizenship and inclusion – challenges some cherished Canadian assumptions about immigration and citizenship.
“Canada is a nation of immigrants – and one of the stories we tell ourselves is that we are welcoming to new immigrants, wherever they may be from,” says ICC CEO Daniel Bernhard. “But while this may be generally true, new survey data points to the fact that many new Canadians are having a crisis of confidence in Canada – and that should be ringing alarm bells all over Ottawa.”
Survey findings include:
30 per cent of 18 to 34-year-old new Canadians and 23 per cent of university-educated new Canadians say they are likely to move to another country in the next two years.
While most Canadians and new immigrant Canadians alike believe that Canada provides immigrants with a good quality of life, Canadians have a much more positive outlook on Canada’s immigration policy compared to new Canadian immigrants.
New Canadian immigrants are more likely to believe that Canadians don’t understand the challenges that immigrants face and feel the rising cost of living will make immigrants less likely to stay in Canada.
Immigrants with university degrees tend to have less favourable opinions on matters related to fair job opportunity and pay than other immigrants.
Among those who would not recommend Canada as a place to live, current leadership and the high cost of living were the top two reasons.
“The data suggest that younger, highly skilled immigrants in particular are starting to fall between the cracks,” said Dave Scholz, Executive Vice-President at Leger. “We need to continue working hard to ensure that we are welcoming newcomers with the resources they need to succeed, and that we continue to be a country that provides opportunity.”
The study included an online survey of 1,519 general population Canadians aged 18+ completed between February 25 and February 27, 2022, using Leger’s online LEO panel, in addition to an online survey of 2,103 new Canadians using ICC’s New Canadian panel completed between February 24 and 28. Weighting has been employed to ensure that the sample composition accurately reflects the adult population of Canada, as per the latest Census Data.
No margin of error can be associated with a non-probability sample (i.e., a web panel in this case). For comparative purposes, though, a probability sample of 2000 respondents would have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
The Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC) is a national non-profit organization co-founded by Adrienne Clarkson and John Ralston Saul. The ICC works to inspire Canadians to be inclusive, create opportunities to connect, and encourage active citizenship. Since 2005, the ICC has also supported more than 300,000 new Canadian citizens with programming to encourage a sense of belonging and build a more inclusive Canada.
Leger is the largest Canadian-owned market research and analytics company, with more than 600 employees in eight Canadian and US offices. Recently, Leger presented the most accurate polling results for the 2021 Canadian federal election (including the most accurate results in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia) and the 2019 Canadian federal election.
The full survey data is available at inclusion.ca.