On the world stage, Canada has a reputation of being a welcoming, pro-immigrant county — its population is said to value multiculturalism, and to recognize the social and economic benefits immigration brings with it.
Further, Canada is a country of immigrants. Twenty-three per cent of Canada’s population are immigrants, according to the 2021 census, making Canada’s immigrant population the eighth largest in the world, and one of the highest proportions of other Western industrialized nations.
But in recent years, Canadians’ attitudes towards immigration have soured. A 2024 survey by the Environics Institute, a non-profit organization that conducts research on public opinion and social issues, found that almost six-in-10 Canadians — 58 per cent — now believe Canada lets in too many immigrants.
This marks a 14 per cent increase from the year before, and a 17 per cent increase from 2022, amounting to the largest shift in a two-year period since the Environics Institute began tracking public opinion on immigration in Canada in 1977.
It’s also the largest portion of Canadians to believe there is too much immigration since 1988.
But it’s not just public opinion that’s changing. Both federal and provincial governments have started cracking down on immigration, introducing policies to tighten immigration programs and cap the number of immigrants given temporary and permanent status in Canada.
In October 2024, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that his government would be cutting back on immigration in 2025, admitting that his government didn’t get the “balance quite right” when they increased immigration levels post-pandemic.
As part of this cut back, Trudeau announced a number of restrictions, both for temporary and permanent immigrants. Notably: a reduction in permanent residents.
In 2025, Canada will reduce the number of new permanent residents it accepts by 105,000 from last year, down from 500,000 — a decrease of 21 per cent — with further reductions planned for 2026.
In January 2024, Trudeau’s government also imposed a cap on study permits, announcing additional reductions in September, citing concerns over the impact of international students on the Canadian housing market.
Restrictions have also been imposed on the provincial level. In October, Quebec announced a freeze on their Quebec Selection Certificates, a document needed for those seeking permanent residency through Quebec’s Regular Skilled Worker Program and Quebec Experience Program. The government also implemented a six-month freeze on new temporary workers working low-wage jobs in Montreal in September.
But Trudeau’s decision to restrict permanent residency and international students came after years of his government purposefully increasing immigration levels, citing the benefit of international students, temporary foreign workers, and skilled immigrants for jumpstarting Canada’s economy after pandemic lockdown orders were lifted.
In fact, only a year prior, in January 2023, Ottawa celebrated welcoming 431,645 new permanent residents — the largest number of immigrants in a single year since 1913 — touting increased immigration levels as the primary reason for Canada’s recovered economy post-pandemic.
Yet a year and a half later, Ottawa’s messaging has become drastically different. In November 2024, the federal government even released a nearly seven minute long YouTube video entitled “Why Canada’s changing its immigration system,” featuring Trudeau confessing to not slowing immigration fast enough, explaining the need for stricter immigration policies, and doubling down on his government’s new messaging.
In the video, Trudeau says his government could have “turned off the taps faster,” blaming “bad actors” for taking advantage of looser immigration programs, which he insists were needed at the time to boost the Canadian labour market.
The question here is: Why? Why the sudden shift in attitude — in only a couple of years — both in public opinion and in policy? And how does this affect those who have immigrated to Canada for a better life?
How the housing crisis paved the way for souring attitudes towards immigration
Victoria Esses, a professor of psychology and director of the Network for Economic and Social Trends at Western University said Canadians’ sour attitude towards immigration originated with the housing crisis — something that has been building for years.
“It started, I would say, with the housing crisis, and some claims that it was caused by too much immigration,” Esses said in an interview with rabble.ca. “It led to people getting concerned, panicking a bit.”
Canada’s housing crisis has reached a peak in recent years. A lack of affordable housing, slow developments, and poor investment in housing has made home ownership an increasingly unattainable goal for many Canadians.
As a result, more people are renting. About one-third of Canadians are renters, according to the 2021 census — which is the highest percentage of renters ever. And over the past ten years, renter growth has increased at double the rate of homeownership.
But the rental market, which many Canadians have turned to out of necessity, has also become increasingly expensive. In Fall 2024, the average rent for a two bedroom purpose-built unit was $1,447.
One of the reasons for high rental rates is the prevalence of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT) — investment companies that sell shares to investors, allowing them to invest in large-scale real estate without individually buying properties.
REITs often buy up properties, develop them, and then rent them out at higher rates, often prioritizing yearly leases, so that they can increase the rent for each time they let to a new tenant, boosting their profit.
READ MORE: Federal government must confront challenges for Canadians who rent homes
Esses explained that the media’s portrayal of immigration, alongside the very real housing crisis, which many Canadians are struggling with, is what has led to this attitude shift.
“The media really depicted immigration — some media — as being out of control,” she said to rabble.ca, “and I think that feeling of being out of control is really essential in understanding why attitudes become more negative.”
Esses explained periods of difficulty often lead to a change in feeling towards immigration, as some feel they have to compete with immigrants in order to succeed — and that this can feed a feeling of resentment.
“The feeling of threatened competition has really gotten this ball rolling, and that it feeds itself,” she said. “People are worried about immigration, they’re worried about their outcomes, and they see these headlines that talk about immigration and the sense of loss of control, the sense of threat.”
“There are not enough houses for people who are here and that immediately got associated with immigration,” she added.
Henry Akanko, the director of Hire Immigrants Ottawa, an initiative that helps connect employers with skilled immigrants, said that the lack of housing growth, coupled with a large influx of immigration, has resulted in this attitude shift.
“Between 2021 and 2024, we brought in close to a little over 2.9 million immigrants,” he explained. “That’s huge. And if you look at our housing stock, we didn’t grow by that much.”
“People have complained that if we allow those huge numbers, as the government had initially announced, that will continue to put a lot of strain on the infrastructure system, which the government recognises and has done something about,” he continued. “The resentment we have seen around immigration is because of those pressures.”
Are international students unfairly taking the blame?
Esses explained that the media’s portrayal of immigrants has had a profound impact on public opinion. And one immigrant population that has been the subject of media attention over the last couple of years has been international students.
In his November YouTube video, Justin Trudeau even calls some post-secondary institutions “bad actors”, saying they took advantage of the government’s less strict post-pandemic immigration policies by using international student programs to “raise their bottom line.”
In Canada, post-secondary international student tuition can be upwards of $30,000, whereas domestic tuition averages to around $7,000 a year, making international students lucrative sources of revenue for Canadian education in situations.
There were over one million international students studying in Canada at the end of 2023, according to the Canadian Bureau for International Education — a growth of 63 per cent over the previous five years, and a growth of more than 200 per cent over the last decade.
Of these over one million international students, 41 per cent came from India.
Samya Hasan, executive director of the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians, an umbrella organization of agencies, and individuals, and organizations providing services to the South Asian community, said she’s noticed that, increasingly, Canadians are blaming South Asian international students for the issues Canada is facing.
“What’s happening with international students, primarily from South Asian countries — primarily from India — a lot of the blame is being shifted towards them,” Hasan said in an interview with rabble.ca.
She said that despite having little power in Canada, South Asian international students are often blamed for Canada’s housing and affordability crisis. Because of this, they’ve become a focus for her organization in recent months.
“What we’re doing as an organization is supporting international students, because this particular group, although they’ve been quite vilified over the last year, they have little to no power when they’re in this country,” she said. “And so we take advantage of that as a society. We shift all of the blame to them because they have no voice and have no power.”
She also explained that many are ill-treated by Canadian education institutions.
“They have told us stories of their colleges failing them for the smallest reason just so they can re-enroll in the course and pay that tuition again,” she said. “They’re just seen as kind of money-making machines for these institutions, and there is no support for them.”
Media portrayal of international students
Over the past year, international students have repeatedly made headlines — for a few different reasons, many of them negative.
In September, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said a “growing number” of international students were claiming asylum in Canada, calling it an “alarming trend.”
According to a report from The Globe and Mail, almost 14,000 asylum claims were made by international students in 2024, as of November. In 2018, there were only 1,810 claims.
Betsy Kane, an immigration lawyer based in Ottawa, explained that, for some students, an asylum claim is a last-ditch attempt to remain in Canada after their student visas expire.
She explained that, as a result of restricted permanent residence pathways for international students, it’s harder for students to transition their status after they’ve graduated, so some are using asylum as a way of staying in Canada, at least temporarily.
An asylum claim — meritorious or not — gives the claimant an open work permit until their hearing, Kane said. But because of the backlog at the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB), some claimants could work in Canada for years while waiting for their hearing.
“It’s basically seen as a bridge to get them over the political hot potato that we’re in right now,” Kane said in an interview with rabble.ca. “These people are just using a last ditch attempt to stay in Canada and ride out this period of contraction or anti-immigrant sentiment.”
She also said that an asylum claim could allow a claimant to transition to permanent residence, though all illegitimate claims eventually require claimants to leave the country.
“If there’s a way for you to transition to permanent residence based on skilled work, then you may have an option, but at some point you would have to depart Canada and regularize your status,” she said.
If an asylum claim is found illegitimate or unfounded by the IRB, then the claimant has a deportation order against them within 30 days of the refugee decision, unless the decision is appealed.
This year, international students have also made headlines for their use of food banks.
In November, CBC reported that a food bank in London, Ontario was overwhelmed with international students, sourcing the spike to a YouTube video shared in Malayalam, a language mostly spoken in southern India, which stated that Canadian food banks could provide food regularly, instead of as an emergency resort.
In the same month, a Brampton food bank decided to close its doors to international students, saying they were unable to keep up with the demand.
Esses said that these stories have further fueled a narrative of blame, as some Canadians perceive international students as taking advantage of emergency services intended for struggling Canadians.
But Esses said that we shouldn’t have this response.
“The media, you know, projects these images of international students using food banks,” said Esses, “and instead of feeling sorry for them, we see them as competing.”
“Who’s to blame in the end itself? Because we admitted them,” she said.
To attend school in Canada, international students have to prove financial stability. However, once in the country, their visas only allow them to work 24 hours a week. And for some students — especially those facing high rental rates and inflated grocery prices — this isn’t enough to support them for the duration of their studies, leading to a reliance on social services.
This year, there have also been reported cases of international students enrolling in fake education institutions, allowing them to gain access to Canada. Last year, the federal government began cracking down on international student fraud, announcing new rules in October in attempts to reduce it.
This followed the launching of a task force in June aimed at investigating over 100 cases of fake admission letters issued by immigration agents designed to get international students into Canada.
Some international students — especially those from India — are increasingly encouraged to study abroad, believing that doing so will improve their career prospects and allow for economic mobility. These students are often at risk for being targeted by fraudulent education institutions schemes, unaware that they’re illegitimate, and are sometimes scammed out of their money, and then abandoned once they’re in the country.
Regardless, Michael Donnelly, professor of political science and Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, said that international student fraud has led to the public perception that the government no longer has control over immigration.
“With the allocation of student permits to programs that people felt were not well-controlled and well thought through, people sensed that the government — the federal government — had sort of lost control of immigration,” he said in an interview with rabble.ca.
He also highlighted that, as many international students work while studying (which is sometimes a necessity), many Canadians are concerned that students are coming to Canada for the purposes of working, not studying, therefore taking advantage of study permits.
“We saw a big ramp up in the last decade or so of people coming in and entering programs that a lot of people didn’t think were particularly productive — and working a lot while doing that,” he said. “And I think that really underminded the public’s perception that the federal government has a handle on immigration.”
But Hasan explained that many South Asian international students take great financial risks to study in Canada, only to be left unsupported once they arrive.
“A lot of them come in based on collective loans from their communities, from their families, to be able to afford the education that they’re getting here,” she said. “They’re required to pay their own way, even though they’re contributing so much to our economy — they’re contributing billions of dollars to our economy — and we are not providing them with any support.”
She also said that they sometimes face racism and discrimination in Canada.
“Now, there is that hate and racism that you’re facing from society,” she said to rabble.ca. “There’s a lot of issues of mental health breakdown within the international student community — and these are very vulnerable people, very young people, 18, 19, 20 years old.”
Esses emphasized that many Canadian post-secondary institutions have become reliant on international tuition to fund their operations, especially in recent years — and without it, many universities and colleges would struggle to maintain their programing.
“Most colleges and universities are in this situation where they want to maintain their programs and they aren’t being supported by the government enough to do so,” she said. “So this is like a backstop. And we’ve become really dependent on international students.”
“But blaming them, you know, doesn’t seem right, because we’ve said ‘come to Canada,’ — even the federal government has suggested that they’re a good source of permanent residents, which is true because they have a Canadian education,” Esses said. “So, I think blaming outsiders is always an easy strategy for people.”
How this fuels an narrative of blame
The public perception of South Asian immigrants goes beyond just international students, however.
A number of online communities now actively share posts citing rampant immigration, especially from India, as the source of Canada’s housing and affordability crisis.
One example of this is the subreddit r/Canadahousing2, which has over 56,000 members, and is rife with posts that cite immigration as the reason for the decline of the Canadian housing market.
In one post, a user posts a screenshot of a rental advertisement requesting an “Indian girl” tenant, calling it racial discrimination. Another post shares an article from the Financial Post with the headline “20,000 Indian students didn’t show up to class after arriving in Canada. What happened to them?” The top comment on that thread is “What about the other millions that just went to fake schools?”.
In another post, an article from India Today about new Canadian visa rules is shared. The comments on the thread: “It’s not enough,” “DEPORT,” and “Keep going.”
Samya said that she’s not surprised, and that South Asian immigrants have become an easy scapegoat for the housing crisis.
“There is no scientific statistical data to prove that these issues are being cause by immigrants,” she said, referencing the housing and affordability crisis, “but unfortunately, the people that are in power and that people that are in decision making roles find it easy to target certain communities and blame them for actions they have no control over.”
“The truth of the matter is we need to build more housing in this country,” she said. “The federal government came out of the business of housing many decades ago, and they need to take ownership and responsibility for doing that once again.”
Donnelly explained that there is a need for more housing, but that building houses in Canada can be difficult, as there are lots of regulations and slow development processes that slow down building projects.
And in times of crisis, he said, people look for someone to blame.
“It’s the basic issue of human psychology of ‘I need this play to live. I feel really upset that I don’t have a place to live. And I see immigrants who do,’” Donnelly said. “That’s a universal.”
“And when it’s a crisis, people are going to look around for people to blame,” he continued. “Immigrants are easy scapegoats there.”
He also explained that it’s difficult to concretely understand the exact impact of immigrants on the Canadian housing market.
“It’s hard to pin down the actual net effect of immigration on housing,” Donnelly said. “After all, lots of houses are built by construction forces with lots of immigrants in them, and so it’s unclear exactly the net effect.”
“But I do think because it’s so hard to build in Canada that adding immigrants quickly does mean that housing prices go up,” he said.
Immigration as part of the Canadian identity
Pro-immigration attitudes, historically, have been a Canadian value — something Esses emphasized to rabble.ca.
“This positive attitude toward immigration is part of who we see ourselves as, and that’s one of the things that defines Canadian identity,” she said.
This has meant that, previously, hard-line immigration policies have not been popular among Canadian voters — many of them immigrants themselves.
But Donnelly said this may be beginning to shift.
“No political party who wanted to form a majority government in Ottawa could really take the lead in scapegoating immigrants,” he said. “You can’t win a majority without winning, you know, suburban Toronto, suburban Vancouver — these places that have a lot of immigrants.”
But the feeling that immigration is out of control has changed that, he said.
“The sense that the federal government has lost control has allowed the opposition to position themselves as not anti-immigrant, but anti the way immigration happens now,” he continued. “And I think that’s where we’re going to be for a while — that that’s a successful political position.”
Esses said that while she hopes Canadians will soften public opinion on immigration, restrictions, for a time, may allow for Canadians to feel more in control.
“I really hope that we can nip this in the bud and go back to where we were,” Esses said. “I think it’s still possible to revert to the more positive attitudes that we were holding if we can just feel a sense of control over what’s happening in our country.”
“I think the reduced targets for immigration for the next three years is a good thing,” she continued. “Just in terms of convincing people that immigration is under control.”
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