We explore the evolution and determinants of attitudes towards immigration in Canada, utilizing Canadian Election Studies surveys from 1988 to 2019. Our analysis indicates a notable trend: a consistent decrease in anti-immigrant sentiments until the mid-2000s, followed by a shift around 2008 towards gradually more negative attitudes towards immigration. To better understand the factors influencing these attitudes, we examine a comprehensive set of variables. While economic factors seem to have some association with these attitudes, our findings more significantly underscore the role of group-level socio-psychological factors. Additionally, our analysis identifies an emerging polarization along political party lines beginning around 2006. Assessing the relative impact of these factors, our analysis suggests that political party identification has become increasingly significant in influencing attitudes toward immigration.
We use cookies to provide you with an optimal website experience. This includes cookies that are necessary for the operation of the site as well as cookies that are only used for anonymous statistical purposes, for comfort settings or to display personalized content. You can decide for yourself which categories you want to allow. Please note that based on your settings, you may not be able to use all of the site's functions.
Cookie settings
These necessary cookies are required to activate the core functionality of the website. An opt-out from these technologies is not available.
In order to further improve our offer and our website, we collect anonymous data for statistics and analyses. With the help of these cookies we can, for example, determine the number of visitors and the effect of certain pages on our website and optimize our content.