Why Are Public Attitudes towards Immigration in Canada Becoming Increasingly Positive? Exploring the Factors behind the Changes in Attitudes towards Immigration (1998-2021)

Focusing on why and how public attitudes towards immigration in Canada have grown more positive between 1998 and 2021, this paper examines whether the changes in attitudes stem from changes in population characteristics or changes in the effect of these characteristics. Our analysis sheds light on the implications of the 2008-2010 financial crisis on the support for immigration. Our logit regression analysis shows that positive attitudes towards immigration are positively related to higher levels of education attainment regardless of the survey years but negatively associated with the support for conservative political parties, especially during and after the financial crisis. By employing decomposition analysis, we investigate the shift in public opinions across individual characteristics before, during, and after the 2008 financial crisis. We find that, for all periods, most of the attitude shift results from the change in the effect of population characteristics rather than the change in the characteristics themselves. S'interessant aux raisons pour lesquelles les attitudes du public a l'egard de l'immigration au Canada sont devenues de plus en plus positives entre 1998 et 2021, cet article cherche a savoir si ce changement decoule de modifications dans les caracteristiques de la population ou de modifications dans l'effet de ces caracteristiques. Notre analyse eclaire les consequences de la crise financiere de 2008-2010 sur le soutien a l'immigration. Notre analyse de regression logistique (logit) montre que les attitudes favorables envers l'immigration sont positivement liees a des niveaux de scolarite plus eleves, quelles que soient les annees observees, mais negativement associees a l'appui aux partis politiques conservateurs, en particulier pendant et apres la crise financiere. A l'aide d'une analyse de decomposition, nous etudions l'evolution de l'opinion publique en fonction des caracteristiques individuelles avant, pendant et apres la crise financiere de 2008. Nous constatons, pour toutes les periodes, que la plus grande partie du changement d'attitude resulte d'un changement dans l'effet des caracteristiques de la population plutot que d'une modification de ces caracteristiques elles-memes.