Possible Survey Question

In developing countries, including Canada, we are seeing increasing limitations put on immigration policies, especially toward refugees. Do you feel that current immigration policies should be reformed to be more lenient for immigration admission policies?

1. Strongly Agree 2. Agree 3. Disagree 4. Strongly Disagree

OR

1. Yes 2. No

Hi Wendy, perhaps we can modify the sentence so that it is a bit more specific. Are you suggesting that Canada, a developed country, should reform its immigration policy to be more generous for ALL potential immigrants (asylum seekers, refugees, skilled workers, family reunification, provincial nominees, etc) or ONLY more generous to refugees?

And I think

1. Strongly Agree 2. Agree 3. Neutral 4. Disagree 5. Strongly Disagree 6. I don't know

would be suitable in this case.

AnitaYu 23:11, 29 January 2011 (PST)

Hello everyone,

I think the question

"should Canada reform its immigration policy to limit immigrants in "--------" category"

would provide the best insight if asked as three seperate question. The three main categories being: skilled worker, family reunification and refugee.

What you guys think?

Hi Amrit, your idea is great, but please keep in mind that our group can only come up with a total of 5 questions.

Should Canada reform its current immigration policies to become more restrictive or more generous towards future immigrants?

1. Very Restrictive 2. Restrictive 3. Status Quo 4. Generous 5. Very Generous 6. I don't know

Would this question incorporate all our ideas into one? Thoughts please, thanks!

Hi Anita, You bring up a good point about there only being 5 questions--something I think all of us need to keep in mind. Also, I really like the question you pose, but just to be clear do you think that our respondents will understand the fundamental difference between "immigrant" and refugee/asylum-seeker. For instance, a respondent may just pool all categories into one under the "immigrant" umbrella. You know what I mean? -Aman

Hi everyone,

I think it's important to start by giving the respondent a general idea of how many immigrants actually come to Canada in one given year. And then from there we can move on to asking more specific questions (i.e. impact on economy, integration, etc.) What about a simple and straight-forward question like the following:

"Currently, Canada accepts 240,000-265,000 immigrants each year, is the # Too high/Too low/About right?" This way the respondent isn't bombarded with a loaded question to begin with, and is given an idea of how many immigrants are actually admitted.

Let me know your thoughts:)

I agree with Aman, I think it would be a good idea to include definitions in our survey, so all the respondents are on the same page. (In fact, at first I was a little concerned about putting refugee and asylum seekers in one category, because they don't necessary mean the same thing...)

Anyway, here's a few definitions we can note in our survey For example: Immigrants- a person who migrates to another country, usually for permanent residence Refugee- One who flees in search of refuge, as in times of war, political oppression, or religious persecution Asylum seeker- a person who, from fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, social group, or political opinion, has crossed an international frontier into a country in which he or she hopes to be granted refugee status

Great idea, Aman.

What do you think about about including a statistic like that for say, the US, UK or Australia, etc? That way respondents will be able to see if 240,000-265,000 is relative. Thoughts?

I like the idea of adding stats from different countries as a basis of comparison. For the same reason I think we should use immigrants as a percentage of population as opposed to the absolute number.