Anti-immigration sentiment is growing in Canada

(Ottawa) The Canadian consensus on the positive effects of immigration has collapsed in recent years.

About half of the population believes that the country welcomes too many immigrants, according to numerous polls carried out by private firms.

The federal government’s own data confirms the trend. In November 2024, 54% of respondents to a telephone survey conducted by the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship believed that too many immigrants were coming to settle in Canada.

In an end-of-year interview, Federal Immigration Minister Lena Diab said she had seen a decline in support for immigration since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I would say that since COVID, there has been a change in thinking, and a lot of that is because Canada is seen as a destination where a lot of people want to come to study, work or live, but also as a refuge,” she emphasizes.

The latest federal immigration plan calls for welcoming 380,000 new permanent residents in 2026, about two-thirds of whom will be economic migrants. The number of temporary resident admissions will fall from nearly 674,000 in 2025 to 385,000 next year.

This is the second consecutive year of decline in the number of immigrants welcomed to Canada, after annual targets for the number of permanent resident admissions reached a peak of 485,000 in 2024.

For its part, Statistics Canada reports a significant increase in the number of hate crimes reported to the police. For example: 265 hate crimes targeting people of South Asian origin were reported to police in 2023, an increase of 227% compared to 2019.

Rupinder Liddar, a doctoral candidate in political science at McGill University, believes the increase in hate crimes is just a statistical symptom of a broader wave of hatred.

“My family, my extended family, everyone has seen an increase in racism. Again, whether it’s overt racism, microaggressions, in person or online, there’s been a sea change since… before the pandemic, and now it’s gotten incredibly worse,” laments M^me Lidar.

Government data indicates that newcomers from India make up the largest share of immigrants to Canada. More than 127,000 new permanent residents in 2024 were Indian nationals. More than 83,000 Indians became permanent residents in the first three quarters of 2025, compared to around 39,000 in 2015.

M^me Liddar attributes the rise in xenophobic sentiment to the links politicians draw between immigration, the high cost of housing and a tough job market for young people.

Liberals and conservatives have linked the sharp rise in rents to the increase in the number of immigrants in recent years. M^me Diab mentions that the government wants a more viable immigration system.

M^me Diab and Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner have both denounced the rise in hate crimes. They do not blame immigrants for the high cost of living.

M^me Rempel Garner blames the government for the rise in anti-immigrant sentiment, saying it allowed too many people to come to Canada in too little time.

M^me Diab believes that the fight against hatred requires a multidimensional approach including education, legislation and law enforcement.

M^me Liddar agrees that it’s not uncommon to see racist attitudes against immigration spread when people don’t feel safe. She recalls the rise of Islamophobia after September 11, 2001, the outbursts of hatred directed against Chinese Canadians during the COVID-19 pandemic and the current tensions related to anti-Indian discrimination.

“What we do know is that […] Anti-immigrant sentiment will lessen when the economy is better, when people feel less resentment toward others, because they feel more secure in their own situation. The online environment continues to spread anti-Indian and anti-immigrant messages. So even if these attitudes suddenly subside, we know that it won’t be long before they resurface. »