A new global survey ranks Canada as the leading in accepting immigrants.
Are you planning to relocate and work in a foreign country? Are you also wondering which country is most welcoming? Well, below is a demystification of research that will answer your questions.
In 2019 a public opinion poll was conducted by Gallup, a US-based company that deals with advisory and analytics. The survey involved about 1000 people from 145 countries. The method of interviewing was face-to-face interviews and phone calls.
Individuals were required to decide whether it was a good or bad thing for immigrants to live among them, become their neighbors, or intermarry with them. Gallup developed an index with scores against each country on a scale of 0 to 9. According to this set scale, a higher score meant a higher acceptance rate, while a lower score meant the opposite.
Canada scored 8.46 out of 9.0 points—It was the highest score amongst the countries surveyed. The U.S scored 7.95, landing the sixth position. For both countries, this was a significant improvement. In 2017, Canada had ranked fourth while the U.S ranked ninth.
Since then, there has been a drastic change in opposite directions for both the U.S and Canada. The Canadian government has encouraged more Immigration, while the U.S. government has become more reluctant. Nevertheless, both countries have a positive public opinion on migration.
In all the three questions posed by Gallup, Canadians scored slightly higher than U.S residents.
Check out the results below
A report written by three researchers revealed some interesting facts common between the U.S and Canada—Political differences had a significant impact on migrant acceptance. This conclusion is similar to 2017 one, where political associations and migrant acceptance went hand in hand.
Supporters of Trump’s presidency in the U.S were associated with less immigrant acceptance than those who did not support him. On the other hand, those who supported Canada’s
Trudeau presidency were more accepting of immigrants compared to those against the prime minister. The outcome was the same when they were asked about the country’s leadership. The ones who approved of the U.S leadership did not support immigrants’ idea, while those who approved of Canada’s leadership were more welcoming to immigrants.
To quanity the approval levels, Gallup used a migrant acceptance index where a higher acceptance meant a higher score.
Researchers discovered that the people who identified themselves more with their city and country in the U.S had different opinions from those who identified themselves more with their race or religion. The latter were less accepting. In Canada, however, the way people identified themselves did not affect how receptive they were to immigrants.
