{"id":175090,"date":"2018-08-05T07:06:53","date_gmt":"2018-08-05T11:06:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=175090"},"modified":"2018-08-05T07:06:53","modified_gmt":"2018-08-05T11:06:53","slug":"majority-canadians-see-asylum-seeker-situation-crisis-says-new-poll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/08\/05\/majority-canadians-see-asylum-seeker-situation-crisis-says-new-poll\/","title":{"rendered":"Majority of Canadians see asylum seeker situation as \u2018crisis,\u2019 says new poll"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
The Angus Reid Institute poll found that 65 per cent of Canadians believe there are \u201ctoo many\u201d people claiming asylum by irregular means for authorities and service providers to handle. (Shutterstock)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two-thirds of Canadians believe the current influx of asylum seekers into Canada is a \u201ccrisis\u201d and that could have political repercussions for Canada\u2019s Liberal government and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, says a new poll by the Angus Reid Institute.<\/p>\n

Since January 2017, roughly 30,000 people have claimed asylum in Canada by crossing \u00a0its border with the United States between official ports of entry. The vast majority of these so-called \u201cirregular\u201d crossings have occurred in Quebec.<\/p>\n

The number of crossings dropped significantly in June, but the poll reflects public opinion between July 25 and 30.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Angus Reid Institute\u00a0poll<\/a>\u00a0found that 65 per cent of Canadians believe there are \u201ctoo many\u201d people claiming asylum by irregular means for authorities and service providers to handle.<\/p>\n

Nearly half of those polled, however, put the number at more than 50,000 and nearly one-third of Canadians estimated 75,000 or more had crossed the border by an irregular route.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who overestimate the number of irregular crossers tend to be more likely to see the issue as a crisis, while those who underestimate it are much less concerned,\u201d the Angus Reid Institute observed.<\/p>\n

These views on the asylum seeker situation are spread across Canada\u2019s political spectrum, the poll says, and are shared by more than half of Canadians who voted for the federal Liberal or New Democratic parties in the last election.<\/p>\n

Of Canadians who voted for the Conservative Party of Canada, 84 per cent believe there are too many people claiming asylum and that Canada is \u201ctoo generous\u201d toward them.<\/p>\n

\u2018Crisis\u2019 narrative criticized<\/h3>\n

The jump in irregular crossings at Canada\u2019s U.S. border coincided with the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration has moved to strip protected status from citizens of Haiti and other countries and ban travelers from a handful of Muslim-majority countries, among other hard-line immigration policies.\u00a0This dynamic was replaced this year by a surge in asylum claims from Nigerians.<\/p>\n

The Conservative Party of Canada has been the most outspoken on the situation, accusing the ruling Liberal government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of mismanagement and downplaying what the situation, which the Consevatives have long labelled a \u201ccrisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Canadian government has avoided such language and Trudeau has been joined by human rights leaders in accusing the Conservatives of playing\u00a0a \u201cdangerous game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[Conservatives] are using the politics of fear and division to pit Canadians against each other,\u201d Trudeau said in late July.<\/p>\n

His comment came on the heels of\u00a0an op-ed<\/a>\u00a0penned by\u00a0Canada\u2019s representative to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, Jean-Nicholas Beuze, who\u00a0wrote that \u201cit is wrong and irresponsible to instill fears about refugees in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s refugee crisis is not here \u2014 but in countries neighbouring conflicts in Africa or the Middle-East,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe least we can do when we see how these countries proudly and courageously \u00a0welcomed hundreds of thousands of refugees is not to cry wolf here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Political crisis<\/b><\/h3>\n

The Angus Reid poll suggests, however, that the Conservative narrative is winning out and that could have repercussions in the next federal election, which is expected next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cAsylum seekers and border security are areas of vulnerability for the Liberal Party \u2014 and a potential effective wedge issue for the Conservative Party in next year\u2019s anticipated election,\u201d the Angus Reid Institute says.<\/p>\n

The polls\u2019 findings suggest that 48 per cent of Canadians \u201cincluding sizeable segments of past left-leaning voters\u201d trust Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer on the asylum seeker file over Trudeau and other federal party leaders. Among those who voted Liberal in 2015, for example, 30 per cent favoured Scheer\u2019s leadership on the issue.<\/p>\n

Canadians \u201care paying a great deal of attention to this issue,\u201d which scored higher on the institute\u2019s awareness index than any other topic, the poll found.<\/p>\n

The Liberal government recently appointed former Toronto police chief Bill Blair as Canada\u2019s new Minister for Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction in a bid to appease public concerns.<\/p>\n

The Angus Reid Institute found that more than three-quarters of Canadians believe border security is \u201cimportant\u201d or a \u201cmajor priority\u201d and half see assisting asylum seekers this same way.<\/p>\n

The Angus Reid Institute says this last finding may reflect the fact only 27 per cent of Canadians believe most of those claiming asylum are genuine refugees. Four in 10 Canadians believe the majority are economic migrants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two-thirds of Canadians believe the current influx of asylum seekers into Canada is a \u201ccrisis\u201d and that could have political …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":146732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-175090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-immigration","mauthors-stephen-smith","mauthors-cic-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}