Canada’s Attitude Towards Immigration Improved in 2026

The most recent public opinion on immigration and refugees shows that Canadians are now roughly evenly split (at 48% each) on whether there is too much immigration. This means there has been a ten percentage point decrease in the last two years in terms of people who think there’s too much immigration.  

Key Takeaways 

• Canadian opinion is swinging back toward more openness on immigration, compared to the 2024 and 2025 public opinion.
• Canadians generally think that immigrants make Canada a better place. 
• The reasons people generally think there’s still too much immigration to Canada are that immigration is poorly managed by the government and that it’s bad for the economy. 
• You can view the original source report here. 

Key Insights from the Environics Public Opinion on Canadian Immigration Report 2026 

Reasons Some Canadians Think There’s Too Much Immigration 

This year, the data revealed the top reasons 48% of people surveyed think there’s too much immigration:  

• Immigration is poorly managed by government (28%); 
• Immigration is bad for the economy or causes unemployment (28%);
• Immigrants drive up housing prices (26%); 
• Immigrants are a drain on public finances (22%);
• There are too many people in Canada already (19%); and 
• Immigration poses a threat to Canadian (or Quebec) culture or identity (18%). 

Here’s how attitudes have changed over time for the top three reasons:  

Canadians Want Newcomers to Start Businesses Here 

One interesting divide between the public’s attitude and how Canada’s immigration system works, is that many Canadians want the government to encourage entrepreneur immigration. 73% thought that the government should encourage more entrepreneurs to immigrate to Canada and start new businesses here.  

Interestingly, this opinion has held relatively steady since 2021, even as the public opinion towards immigration broadly shifted. In other words, Canadians are and have consistently been open to more entrepreneur immigration while Canada’s governments have been slowly closing doors to it.  

Significant Differences Along Political Party Lines in Canada 

We published recently on the changes the Canadian Conservative Party propose to Canada’s immigration levels. If you’re not familiar with Canada’s political parties and their general attitudes towards immigration, this report may be pretty eye opening.  

The people polled for the Environics survey who intended to vote Conservative tended to have a more negative view towards immigration than those who tended to vote Liberal or NDP. For example:  

• 57% of Conservative voters agree that immigrants take jobs from Canadians, while just 18% of liberal voters and 13% of NDP voters agree.  

• 45% of Conservative voters don’t think that immigration has a positive impact on the economy, while just 10% of liberal voters think this is true.  

The gaps between Conservative voters’ opinions on immigration have widened since 2019.  

Does This Shift in Public Opinion Pave the Way for Higher Immigration in Canada? 

Most likely not in the short term. This report has just been released and it’s very likely that Canada’s government has already chosen its direction for the Immigration Levels Plan for 2027-2029.  

However, many of the immigration changes that we’ve seen over the past two years have been in response to public sentiment towards immigration shifting. And, if the public’s attitude towards immigration continues to trend in a positive direction, it’s possible that immigration levels may increase in 2028.  

As for temporary resident levels, I would personally be surprised to see the 2023 levels of temporary resident approvals again anywhere in the near term. 

The Immigration Levels Plan is likely to be published within the next eight days. If you’d like to get our insights when the levels drop, join our email community. We’ll share the breaking news as it happens, plus our key insights on what the levels plan means for your immigration journey. You can unsubscribe anytime.