Sunday, June 17, 2007

Poll - attitudes on immigration

There are lies, damn lies and statistics.
Then there are pollsters and polls.


A recent Ipsos-Reid poll surveyed Canadians on their attitudes to immigration. Different people found different results:

According to Jack Aubry - Canadians becoming more positive toward immigrants:
Canadians today seem more comfortable with granting immigrants equal rights
and opportunities.
[...]
...90 per cent of Canadians disagreed with the view that newcomers should go
back "to where they came from." [Hmmm! Harsh wording! But, any bets the other 10% were largely aboriginals?:]
According to Janice Tibbetts - majority want minorities to adapt culturally:
Canadian attitudes toward cultural differences have hardened slightly over the past nine years. ["hardened"?]
[...]
58 per cent -- believe minorities should try to fit the traditionally Canadian mould.
[A disappointingly low number. Or am I being too 'hard'?]
[...]
Older Canadians, Quebecers, and those without university degrees were most likely to believe in the concept of a cultural melting pot rather than a cultural mosaic.
[This is mostly a measure of heavy multi-culti indoctrination at universities. And perhaps Ipsos-Reid wanted to show what neanderthals those fans of the ‘melting pot’ are.]

Interesting, sort of, but I’d like to know what the poll questions were.

4 comments:

Raphael Alexander said...

Canadian want other cultures to adapt, but do absolutely nothing to force integration of assimilation of values, instead allowing for segregated communities and promoting segregationary lobbies and cultural centres. How can we expect immigrants to "adapt culturally" if we impose absolutely no conditions for it (none whatsoever), not even language?

Don't believe me? Go into any immigrant neighbourhood and speak to naturalized citizens in English. See how many get a frightened look in their eye and call for a younger relative to translate for them.

JR said...

Agree. If there’s to be any ‘assistance’ immigrants should be assisted in assimilating into Canadian culture.

So I’d be happy if we had no official multi-cultural policy. Our governments should not be actively promoting cultural traditions and values that are not expected to be adopted by ALL citizens. While I have no problem with newcomers honouring and/or maintaining their former country’s traditions and values (provided they don’t conflict with the common values), they should do so on their own dime and time. I resent having my tax dollars spent promoting cultural differences.

Anonymous said...

it would be interesting to not only see the questions but where they did the questioning...I could see places like Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver/Richmond answering very differently form say Kelowna, Kamloops, Edmonton, Saskatoon, St John, or say Thunder Bay or Sudbury...

Anonymous said...

very good point mred.I'm form Northern Ontario...definately different experiences with immigration up here.
I was recently 'polled' by ECOS on issues relating to care of the elderly and aging population. Mixed in were questions re: the levels of government. Very strange questions.I'm wondering how the answers wil be 'interpreted'.