ANALYSIS: Concern Is Growing About New Immigrants’ Values Amid Israel-Hamas War

Supporters gather for a rally to free Palestine on the steps of the Victorian parliament in Melbourne, Australia, on Oct. 15, 2023. (Sam Tabone/Getty Images)

While Canada has long been known as a safe haven for refugees and a welcoming place for immigrants, polls show an increasing concern among Canadians that newcomers may not share some key national values.

These concerns relate, in part, to the Israel–Hamas war—particularly the degree to which immigrants may sympathize with Hamas or hold anti-Semitic views.

A Leger poll from November 2023 shows that 78 percent of Canadians are concerned about “how a conflict thousands of miles away is having an impact on communities here in Canada.” And 51 percent said the government should do more to encourage newcomers to embrace Canadian values including liberalism and respect for other faiths and races.

A program to bring Gaza refugees to Canada is moving forward as the nation grapples with its approach to immigration. The program does not have a cap, though the government originally estimated it would issue about 1,000 visas. And it is limited to those who have family ties in Canada.

A group called Lawyers for Secure Immigration has criticized the program’s security screening process, saying it’s not stringent enough to guard against those with ties to Hamas. On the other hand, another group, the Gaza Family Reunification Project, has criticized the screening for being too onerous for people urgently fleeing Gaza.

About 57 percent of people surveyed in Gaza from Nov. 22 to Dec. 2 last year said they believe Hamas was correct in launching the Oct. 7 attack on Israeli civilians, according to a poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.

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ADL Global 100’s Antisemitism Index says that 93 percent of the people in Gaza and the West Bank harbour anti-Semitic attitudes. The survey has been conducted in over 100 countries as well as the West Bank and Gaza since 1964. It includes 11 questions developed by University of California researchers that test the extent to which people believe negative stereotypes about Jews. The index’s latest data on Gaza and the West Bank is from 2014.

While the Leger poll found that Canadians are still largely positive on immigration, with 56 percent saying some elements of diversity can bring strength to the nation, 75 percent said anyone with non-permanent status who expresses hatred toward a minority group or support for a terrorist group, such as Hamas, should not be allowed to stay.

Canada has long grappled with these questions of immigration and values.

From 2015 through 2017, some Conservative MPs faced backlash for proposing measures aimed at honour killings and other “barbaric” practices, as they were called. Then-MP Kellie Leitch was among those calling for an RCMP tip line to report such concerns, as well as a values test for newcomers.

She was criticized as “anti-immigrant” at the time, and today’s renewed scrutiny of immigrant values is open to similar criticism, says Philip Carl Salzman, professor emeritus of anthropology at McGill University.

“It‘ll go to ’racism' instantly,” he told The Epoch Times. But Mr. Salzman says these are matters that need to be considered in a country that wants to welcome immigrants and help them integrate.

Politicians on both sides of the aisle have recently become more open to discussing immigration as a cause of housing problems in Canada, something that was also previously more taboo.

Cultural Concerns

Mr. Salzman’s areas of expertise include culture and immigration. He said the safety of women has often been a key point of concern.

He referred to a spike in rapes committed in Oslo, Norway, around the turn of the century. The Brussels Journal and other European publications at the time reported on a 2001 police study showing two out of three people charged with rape in Oslo were immigrants from a “non-western background.”

The New Year’s Eve 2015 attacks in the German city of Cologne involved some 1,000 men from the North African-Arabic region, according to German publication Deutsche Welle. They sexually assaulted women en masse during a public celebration. The event put pressure on then-Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open immigration policies.

Asian grooming gangs in the UK were famously allowed to proliferate due to fears among authorities that pinpointing them would seem racist. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced last April that a new task force working with the National Crime Agency on the issue would use ethnicity data. He said “political correctness” wouldn’t get in the way of a crackdown on the gangs exploiting children, according to The Guardian.

The foreign interference inquiry currently underway in Ottawa also highlights concerns about security and immigration. It is investigating the ways in which the Chinese regime, as well as Russia and other foreign entities, tried to influence Canada’s 2019 and 2021 federal elections.

Solutions

While the values test idea rejected in 2017 has gained at least a little traction, with Quebec implementing one in 2020, Mr. Salzman says it’s not the answer. People will know how they need to respond and it would just be a token effort at ascertaining values, he said.

The other question about such a test would be which values to include, says Jeffrey Reitz, professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.

The Quebec test, for example, includes questions about gender equity that many Canadians would have trouble agreeing on, Mr. Reitz told The Epoch Times.

“I think the questions are being written as if there is one Canadian response,” he said.

He noted that heightened tension around immigration right now is largely connected to housing concerns as well as “the sense of the system being out of control ... and the general puzzlement that the government has rushed to double numbers without much public preparation or consultation.”

Regarding security concerns in admitting people from Gaza or any other location, he said criminal laws are sufficient to deal with any problems.

Anna Triandafyllidou, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration at Toronto Metropolitan University, says polls showing Canadians have cooled in their enthusiasm for welcoming immigrants should be viewed in context.

She cited polling over the past few decades by the Focus Canada research program, launched in 1976 by the Environics Institute for Survey Research, which surveys Canadians on their opinions about immigration.

Around the mid-1990s, more than 60 percent of Canadians agreed with the statement “there is too much immigration to Canada.” That percentage dropped dramatically from then on, reaching a low of 27 percent in 2022. In 2023, it jumped to 44 percent of respondents agreeing “there is too much immigration,” the greatest one-year shift in opinion since Focus Canada began surveying in 1977. Focus Canada said housing was the main concern.

Given that public opinion was so favourable toward immigration in 2022, the drop in favour still leaves the nation relatively positive toward it.

“So we’re not talking about people getting negative, we’re talking about people getting less positive,” Ms. Triandafyllidou said.

Polling has long shown that Canadians prefer for immigrants to “blend in” and adopt Canadian values, Mr. Reitz said. Social science data has shown many immigrants “move toward the Canadian viewpoints over time,” he added.