Surveys still find immigrant and Canadian-born respondents agreeing on human rights, gender equality, and the rule of law, even as more people say the country is admitting too many newcomers. The argument for changing the targets, rather than the values, is in the RBC immigration report.
What the values questions show
Statistics Canada’s 2020–2021 reports found immigrants at least as likely as people born in Canada to say those values are shared. The fight in the last two years has been about housing and the number of arrivals, not about whether equality and the courts are the standard. The population revision that fed that fight is in Lorne Gunter’s reading of the 2025 figures.
Where opinion moved
In 2023 and 2024, more respondents said immigration levels were too high. Researchers tie that to rent and to crowded services, not to a rejection of the people arriving. The ministers’ attempt to match the next plan to housing is in sustainable immigration planning.
What still holds the consensus
Environics Institute work has kept finding majority support for a diverse society after the economic anxiety rose. The disagreements are about the pace. The conditions people name for keeping that support are:
- Targets that are published, with the cost attached.
- Housing and transit that serve people already here and people arriving.
- Settlement programs that reach a job, not only an airport.
- A plain account of which shortages immigrants are actually filling.
- The same legal standard for everyone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do the two groups agree on values?
On human rights, gender equality, and the rule of law, the survey record says yes.
Why did views of the intake turn negative?
Housing and strained services, more than a change in those values.
Is multiculturalism still a majority view?
Environics has continued to find majority support, including after the rise in economic anxiety.
