New polling done by Leger has provided evidence towards a trend by the public to be more skeptical of and more hostile to immigration to Canada.

That poll, released on July 25, was performed for the Association of Canadian Studies and saw a new-millennium high antipathy towards the number of immigrants coming to Canada at 60 per cent.

That percentage was up from 50 per cent at the beginning of the year in February, and up from 35 per cent pre-pandemic in March of 2019.

That antipathy was highest in Alberta, which saw 67 per cent say there were too many immigrants coming to Canada. Just 29 per cent said there was just the right amount, and two per cent said that there were too few immigrants.

“That is really concerning when we look at that, and then the juxtaposition of that alongside with Alberta being the place that has the number one group of people… not wanting or thinking there’s too many newcomers,” said Centre For Newcomers CEO Anila Umar.

The Leger poll was the latest in a growing number of polls nationally, and even internationally, that have demonstrated a global shift downwards in the perception of immigration.

A November 2023 poll by Abacus Data of 2,000 Canadians found that 40 per cent of respondents believed that Canada’s immigration target was way too high, and 27 per cent believed it was too high.

Perceptions affect reality

Umar said that the shifting perception has caused the Centre for Newcomers concern, both for the ability of the non-profit to assist clients but also for the safety of clients themselves.

“We saw it over the COVID, when we had so many issues with food security, housing, and everything else, and how easy it was to blame newcomers or people of colour, and the racism, the discrimination, the acts of violence,” Umar said.

“It’s really worrisome when even we have our own newcomers that are saying, or immigrants that are saying, ‘no, there’s too many newcomers arriving.'”

As a result, she said, The Centre for Newcomers was having to pay a lot more attention to polling data and trends.

“We get a lot more calls coming where people are angry, and they’re just yelling, or we have people come into the centre saying that we shouldn’t have any money, and government money shouldn’t be actually going to the centre or to newcomers,” Umar said.

“We worry about the safety of our newcomers, and we don’t have that many resources. Funding has been cut, and continues to be cut across the board, not only with us but with other agencies as well. There’s just not enough money to go around for the number of newcomers that are there.”

Polling results from Leger indicated that white Canadians survey respondents by approximately 62 per cent said that there were too many immigrants coming to Canada, but that a majority of non-White and visible minority respondents at nearly 55 per cent felt the same way.

In a 2023 poll released by Statistics Canada that looked at the perception of shared values in Canadian society by immigrants, the results found that in Alberta, Canadian-born respondents found by a slim majority of 51.8 per cent that immigrants shared values of human rights, 23.9 per cent about gender equality, and 20.3 about ethnic and cultural diversity.

Among immigrants to the province, it was 66 per cent for the shared value of human rights, 47.8 per cent for gender equality, and 47.4 per cent for ethnic and cultural diversity.

Insufficient support and too little resources has led to systemic problems

Umar acknowledged that the number of temporary residents let into Canada over the past several years, without sufficient resources to support those individuals, was affecting the perception of newcomers.

"We did allow in way too many temporary residents, that the government didn't necessarily believe they were going to need to assist as much as they ended up having to assist. So it was really good on the humanitarian side of things, but logistically, not as well executed as we would have liked,” she said.

As a result, the work that the Centre for Newcomers has done for the most vulnerable newcomers, like refugees, has been affected, alongside overall trends making it harder for non-profits to operate in Calgary.

"It's becoming much harder to advocate and it's becoming much harder, just in terms of being able to secure the funding or the donations. Also, Canadians are struggling and donations are down across the board for all not-for-profits, and also volunteers,” Umar said.

"People are struggling in terms of inflation, in terms of needing to work, in terms of their own mental health and their own stress levels. We’ve got less volunteers... we've got less donations coming in. All of that is creating issues not only for us in the in the newcomer sector, but overall in social services."