More Quebecers feel there’s too much immigration to Canada: poll

A recent Environics Institute poll on Canadian public opinion on immigration and refugees shows that 51 per cent of Quebecers feel that there is too much immigration to Canada, a five per cent increase since 2024. 

The poll shows that when looking at Canada as a whole, 56 per cent of Canadians believe there is too much immigration. This represents a two per cent drop since last year.

“A lot of these ups and downs and anti-immigration sentiment are driven in a way by concerns about the social contract, they feel, the social compact, right? If people feel like they’re not being taken care of as they should be,” said Thomas Soehl, a McGill University Sociology professor, adding, “then they look for, you know, other people become the focus. Like, what about them? What about them? Why do they need to be here?”

“I think that Quebecers recognize that immigration is a force for good. I think that where the frustration comes from is that while it is a force for good, it needs to be managed in a responsible way and I don’t think that it was managed responsibly and so I think that that’s where the frustration is coming from,” explained Moshe Lander, an economics senior lecturer at Concordia University.

“I think the Canadian government and the provinces have not been proactive to see that immigration is the future of Canada,” said Frantz André, a coordinator and spokesperson for the Comité d’action des personnes sans statut.

“The rhetoric has become so bad and repeating day in and day out, Canadians end up believing the problem in Canada is immigration.” 

Some of the main reasons from the Quebecers who agree that there is too much immigration in the poll indicate that there is a lack of screening, it takes jobs from other Canadians and immigrants drive up home prices.

“There’s some not great research to what extent this actually matters, to what extent do immigrants actually cause housing costs or housing prices to rise,” explained Soehl.

“It’s not entirely clear to what extent there actually is a negative effect. It might be a small one, it’s certainly not the main driver of this.” 

Forty-three per cent of the Quebecers polled also agree that many people claiming to be refugees are not real refugees with 33 per cent disagreeing with this belief.

The poll also showed that 72 per cent of Quebecers agree that immigration has an overall positive impact on the Canadian economy. This reveals a four per cent increase from the previous year.

“If you’re willing to give up your customs, culture, language, family, climate, history, comfort to go to a foreign country and that foreign country has winter for seven months of the year, I would think that you’re probably an entrepreneurial creative sort of person. And that would be the type of thing that would drive growth,” said Lander.

“I think people need to stop listening to politicians and looking what their, their quality of life was before and what it is today and what it might come tomorrow, because they’re putting everything on the back of the immigrants. But in fact, right now the growth of Canada is based on immigration,” said André.

As part of its Focus Canada public opinion research program (launched in 1976), the Environics Institute updated its research on immigration and refugees. This survey was conducted in partnership with the Diversity Institute at Toronto Metropolitan University, and with the ongoing support of the Century Initiative.

The survey is based on telephone interviews conducted (via landline and cellphones) with 2,004 Canadians between September 8 and 21, 2025. A sample of this size drawn from the population produces results accurate to within plus or minus 2.2 percentage points in 19 out of 20 samples. All results are presented as percentages, unless otherwise noted.