Immigration's Effect on the Social Fabric and Economy

Hey guys,

Why don't we ask about citizens' personal view about immigration? Whether or not they think it is a good think for society...because we know that extensive immigration can cause social issues such as segregation, gang violence, or lack of national unity. On the other hand, it can be seen as a good thing because it can bring economic recovery to the country.

“Canada plans to welcome between 240,000 and 265,000 new permanent residents in 2010, the same number of immigrants as in recent years. In 2010, Canada will again welcome more new permanent residents than the average annual intake during the 1990s,” said Minister Kenney. “The focus of the 2010 plan is on economic immigration to support Canada’s economy during and beyond the current economic recovery.”

Source: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/media/releases/2009/2009-10-30.asp

1.) Do you think allowing as many as 265,000 new permanent residents into Canada will have a positive or negative effect on the social fabric of Canada?

___positive ___ negative

2.) Do you agree that immigration of workers is an effective means for economic recovery?

-strongly agree - agree - somewhat agree - disagree -strongly disagree

Hi Emily. I especially like your second question since it may cause the interviewee to realize a "real world, positive contribution" of immigrants, as opposed to how most general questions about immigration (eg. "Do you support higher or lower amounts of immigration?") that allow a larger amount of imagining. What I mean by the latter is that we can avoid "social desirability" influencing responses, in either a pro- or anti-immigration sense, since your question #2 is applied and asks for more objective thinking than the example question I just mentioned. Regarding your first question, "social fabric" is a pretty vague term, in my humble opinion. Also, in the "Immigration as a positive contributor survey question" thread I proposed that we have a question like this but involving multiculturalism. I know that multiculturalism is a more narrow question than what you're asking regarding social fabric, but maybe a narrower point of focus would allow us to measure answers better? What do you think?

Hi Pawel,

Yes, I saw your comment about multiculturalism as a positive contributor. I think that narrowing it down into that aspect is better than a broad term. I guess what I am trying to say is whether the effect of immigration is good for the society as a whole, because even multiculturalism can have negative effects to the social unity. I think I want to know whether citizens are in favour of this correlation of multiculturalism and high level of immigration.