A new study by Gallup has put Canada on number four in its list of most-accepting immigrant countries. Iceland topped this list, whereas, New Zealand and Rwanda ranked second and third respectively. Out of the list of 140 most-accepting immigrant countries, Canada got a score of 8.14 out of 9 for the same. The survey involved the opinion of 2000 Canadians, who were 15 years and above when the survey took place in 2017 from August 10 – November 29.
The study conducted by Gallup was directed towards evaluating a country’s acceptance of its migrant population. In order to find out a country’s “increasing degrees of proximity” in relation to its immigrants, Gallup had set up three questions to ask the citizens. These questions tapped the positive and negative responses of citizens regarding their opinions on immigrants becoming their neighbors or being married into their homes.
Immigration-Acceptance: Canada vs. United States
The United States of America scored 7.86 in the survey of most-accepting immigrant nations. US President Donald Trump’s new immigration policies too played a crucial role in bringing Canada at the top charts of this survey, as a huge number of people claimed asylum in Canada after it.
Basically, the index of immigrant-accepting nations put up by Gallup throws light on Canadians overall positive attitude towards migrants. Although some researchers in this report also said that this general acceptance “largely follows political fault lines”. The report throws light on the past record of Canada and US as highly immigrant-friendly nations, where at present one of these two countries has been trying to separate itself from it. The Trump government has taken a negative opinion of immigrants as it sees immigration as a threat to the country’s security. Whereas, the Canadian Liberal government continues to have a favorable opinion of immigrants and is even taking steps to increase it in the near future.
Factors Influencing the Immigration-Accepting Countries’ Survey –
- Religion: Respondents from Canada and US, who considered religion as an important factor in their lives scored less on the index of immigrant-accepting countries in comparison to those who did not give much importance to religion in their day to day lives. For instance, US citizens who considered themselves as religious and supported Trump scored 6.97 in the survey. Whereas, citizens who self-identified themselves as non-religious and were not on Trump’s side got a higher score of 8.61.
- Education: Another factor that influenced Gallup’s index in both Canada and US was education. The survey showed that the acceptance levels of educated residents for the migrant population was much higher in comparison to those who were uneducated.
- Age: Age of respondents too played a crucial role in determining the acceptance level of citizens for its immigrant population, as the young citizens came out to be more accepting of migrants in both Canada and the US.
Other than these, the general standard of living and income levels of citizens also influenced the immigration-accepting countries’ survey taken up by Gallup.
