Poll: 39 percent of Canadians believe there is too much immigration

Two-fifths of Canadians feel that the immigration targets set by the Trudeau Liberals are "too high," found an Angus Reid poll. The federal government recently announced that some 401,000 newcomers would become permanent residents in 2021.

Immigration was down briefly during the year 2020 because of the pandemic, but the Trudeau Liberals committed to subsequent 10,000 quota increases in 2022 and 2023. This amounts to 411,000 and 421,000 permanent residents to tackle the unprecedented shortfalls created last year.

The poll posted similar results to a previous poll from last year on immigration. This years poll represents a randomized sample of 1,984 Canadian adults who are members of Angus Reid Forum."

Twenty-two percent of those polled said that Canada was letting "far too many" people in, and a further 17 percent said that there were "too many" people being let in.

Another 34 percent said that the immigration target was "about right", with eight and five percent responding that "too few" or "far too few" people were being let in, respectively.

A plurality of past NDP (43 percent) and Liberal (47 percent) voters believe the current target of 401,000 new permanent residents is the right amount. Twenty-three percent of past CPC voters agreed.

On the other hand, a plurality of 39 percent felt that the target is too high. This proportion rises to a majority in Alberta (50 percent) and Saskatchewan (54 percent) and is the opinion of nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of past Conservative voters.

Thirteen percent of Canadians said the 411,000 target is not ambitious enough, rising to one-in-five among past Liberal and New Democrat voters.

Twenty-six percent said they prefered immigration from Europe, while one-in-five said the US and Mexico. Immigration from South Asia was chosen by four percent, a finding starkly contrasted against the fact that Canada’s largest source of immigration is currently India.