Canadians' passion for accepting new immigrants has reached to its limits, as said by research commissioned by the Harper government prior to it announced previous week that it was holding the line on immigration next year.
The research cautioned that Canadians are less tending to feel that immigration reinforce Canadian culture than they were prior in the decade and that completely 36 per cent of those surveyed thought that immigration increases joblessness amongst Canadians.
The findings -based on an extensive survey -said Canadians hold usually positive but to some extent conflicted views on immigration and assortment in Canada.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney mirror the warning tone of the research as he give details last week why the federal government determined to remain the 2011 target for accepting permanent residents the same as last year's -between 240,000 and 265,0000.
"I believe Canadians are usually helpful of immigration," Kenney told reporters previous week. "I don't, though, think they desire to see enormous increases further than where we previously are."
Kenney accredited the government's stand-pat position to the "delicate" nature of the economic recovery. He was at pains to stress; though, immigrants would be a crucial adding in the coming years as Canada's homegrown labor pool shrinks.
Ekos Research and Associates was hired by the government to perform its yearly tracking survey on Canadian approach toward immigration. The firm's findings bring to the government in April and just made public, were based on telephone interviews with 1,530 adults, counting 300 new Canadians.
The firm's statement says the findings make known Canadians tend to view the force of immigration on the economy in a more favorable light than they view the impact of immigration on Canadian culture. It says a lot of Canadians express "rather high levels" of enlightening insecurity when asked about immigration and diversity, particularly religious diversity.
"So, the benefits of immigration must be more closely connected to financial rather than cultural impacts," the firm advised. "Additional, when communicating the financial impacts of immigration, the center should be on the economy in general, rather than on unemployment specifically (which is more negatively perceived by Canadians)."
The firm also said that at the same time as 71 per cent of respondents said they felt immigration was fine for Canada, the numeral declined to 48 per cent when asked if they thought it was good for their neighbourhood.
The firm said that if the government wants to amplify support for immigration amongst opponents, the groups to aim would be older Canadians and those with lower income and education levels.
Among the findings:
• More than 50% of Canadians (54 per cent) said they think the figure of immigrants coming to Canada is about right, up from 49 per cent in 2004.
• Almost 23% said there are excess of immigrants, down from 31 per cent in 2004;
• 57% said they feel accepting immigrants from a lot of different cultures makes Canadian culture stronger, down from 61 per cent in 2004;
• 2/5 said they feel religious diversity means we have less in general as Canadians.
