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Canadians support legal immigration

Public support for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s expansive immigration policies depends a great deal on how pollsters ask the question.

For example, do they tell Canadians what our annual immigration targets are, make a distinction between immigrants and refugees, or explain where most immigrants to Canada come from today?

What these polls consistently show, however, is that, a significant minority and, in some cases, a majority of Canadians hold views that the federal Liberals absurdly criticize as racist.

For example, a recent telephone survey of 1,320 Canadians by the federal immigration department revealed by Blacklock’s Reporter, found a strong minority of Canadians surveyed — 41% — think the Trudeau government’s target of allowing 341,000 immigrants into Canada this year is too high.

Slim majorities agreed that “immigrants need to do more to integrate into Canadian society” (51%) and “Canada should focus on helping unemployed Canadians, rather than looking for skilled immigrants for our workforce” (52%).

During thefederal election campaign last October, a poll by Angus Reid Institute found a similar number of Canadians surveyed — 40% — believedthe Trudeau government’s immigration targets were too high, compared to 13% who thought they were too low, 39% who thought they were about right and 8% who were unsure.

The point is that public concern about Canada’s immigration system, and the Trudeau government’s current immigration targets, which are just short of 1% of Canada’s population annually, aren’t new.

And that’s to say nothing of concerns about Canada’s refugee system, highlighted by the federal auditor general’s recent report that the Canada Border Services Agency has lost track of 34,700 foreign nationals, most of them failed refugee claimants, who were supposed to be removed from Canada