National Post Online - news
National Post
 News Financial Post Arts & Life Sports Commentary Diversions Forums


 Canada
 + News
 + Reporter
 + Politics
 + West to East

 World
 + Observer


Careerclick

Special Features







Search Help
Sort by:
Date
Rank
 
Category


Tuesday, October 12, 1999

Vancouver residents most negative toward immigrants: study
Prejudice increases in direct parallel to the numbers of immigrants

Rick Ouston
The Vancouver Sun

Nick Didlick, The Vancouver Sun
Migrants such as these peering out from the rear deck of the Coast Guard ship Tanu as it arrives in Port Hardy could expect a cool reception from Vancouver residents, according to a government study.

VANCOUVER - Vancouver residents are much more likely to feel negative towards current immigration levels than the country as a whole, an internal Citizenship and Immigration Canada study has found.

But before anyone brands West Coast residents less welcoming than average Canadians, the author of the study notes that Toronto residents are not far behind Vancouver in their opposition to immigrants.

And those most in favour of current immigration levels live in places where few immigrants ever go.

The study, by consultant Douglas L. Palmer of Elgin, Ont., and completed in July of this year, looked at 20 years of polls commissioned by the CIC on immigration attitudes.

An internal report, it was not released until immigration lawyer Richard Kurland, vice-chairman of the Canadian Bar Association branch on immigration, obtained it under freedom of information laws.

The study says prejudice and racism seems to increase in direct parallel to the numbers of immigrants.

While more data is needed, "there is some suggestion ... that greater flow rates are associated with greater prejudice against immigrants and perhaps more so during periods of economic recession," Mr. Palmer said.

Negative feelings toward immigrants do not correlate with unemployment rates, the author says. More studies are needed to determine the reasons.

While many Canadians feel that individual immigrants make good friends, neighbours and co-workers because they feel they tend to be more educated, intelligent, motivated and interesting, they may also feel that the rate of immigration is too high because the economy or social infrastructure cannot handle that large an addition to the size of the population, the study found.

On the other hand, some people may be relatively bigoted, which can make them feel that the level of immigration is too high, perhaps in spite of perceptions that immigration is good for the economy, it found.

"So, when we see a survey result saying that X% of Canadians feel that there are too many immigrants coming to Canada, we do not know to what extent that opposition is motivated by prejudice and to what extent it is driven by unprejudiced perceptions of negative policy effects."

Immigrants tend to gravitate toward metropolitan Toronto and Vancouver at a far greater clip than anywhere else in the country. When the ratio of immigrant to current resident is factored in, the numbers show a disproportionate imbalance.

Vancouver and Toronto, together "account for just over a fifth of existing residents but are the destination of over three-fifths of new immigrants," says a study of 30 years of immigration opinion polling by Douglas L. Palmer, PhD, for the CIC.

Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal are the preferred destination for most immigrants, followed by major metropolitan centres in Alberta and Ontario and then by rural Ontario and B.C., with the rest of the country home to one-third of the population but just one-twelfth of new immigrants, the study showed.

Put another way, the rate of flow to Vancouver and Toronto is 11 times as great than those going to the least popular third of the country.

"The rate of current immigration relative to the size of Canadian-born residents is 18 times higher than for the other (one-third of the country) category and six times that for the five other major immigrant receiving regions," the study found.

Across Canada, an average of about 43% of all people reported between 1996 and the end of last year that immigration had a positive effect, including about 44% in B.C.

But 47% of British Columbians said they believed too many immigrants come to Canada, compared to 37% in Manitoba and Saskatchewan and 39% in the Atlantic provinces and Quebec.

In B.C., 25% of respondents said immigrants had a negative effect during that time, compared to just 14% for Atlantic Canada, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, 19% for Quebec and 18% for Alberta. In Ontario, 20% of respondents suggested a negative effect, with 44% reporting a positive effect.

Immigration also weighs much heavier on the minds of Vancouver residents than the rest of the country.

Asked what was at the top of their list of concerns, 12% of Vancouver residents cited immigration during an October, 1998, Angus Reid poll.

That was before the current controversy over boatloads of Chinese migrants being caught off the B.C. coast.

The rest of the country averaged two to three per cent, with rural B.C. coming in second-highest at four per cent.

The study examined polls and surveys conducted by Environics, Angus Reid, Ekos Research, Insight Research and Gallup Canada, with sample sizes ranging from more than 1,000 to just less than 2,400.




RELATED SITES:

(Each link opens a new window)

  • Citizenship and Immigration Canada

    The brand-new white paper on immigration policy

  • Statistics Canada: Immigration and Citizenship

    Statistics from the 1996 national census that look at where Canadians came from.

  •  
     Home Site Map Feedback Info

    Copyright © Southam Inc. All rights reserved.
    Optimized for browser versions 3.0 and higher.