Canadas Role Source Canadian Council for Refugees 2011 Canadas Role In all countries with some variation majority is restrictionist Believes country has accepted enough refugees and asylum seekers Simon amp Lynch 1999 ID: 800971
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Slide1
Anti-Refugee Sentiment in Canada
Slide2Canada’s Role
Source: Canadian Council for Refugees, 2011.
Slide3Canada’s Role
In all
countries, with some variation, majority is ‘
restrictionist
’
:
Believes country has accepted enough refugees and asylum seekers, (Simon & Lynch, 1999).
BUT, did you know that Canada accepts only about 0.1% of the world’s refugees!
(Amnesty International Canada, 2011).
Slide4Chinese Migrants, 1999
Slide5Tamil Migrants, 2009
Slide6Unexpected Findings
Canadians
actually support high
immigration
levels!
Pro-immigration explanations
p
olitical
*economic
education
age
gender
Source: Institute for Research on Public Policy, 2011.
Slide7Why not pro-refugees then?
Dependent variable
Anti-refugee sentiment
Independent variables
Political
Affiliation
Rhetoric
Economic
factors
Individual
National
Social factors
Education
Age
Gender
Threat to national identity?Media influence: tone; discourse
Research Question
:
What can help explain the rise in anti-
refugee sentiment in Canada?
Slide8Negative Framing
Media and political discourse
“Illegal
migrants, queue jumpers, mass arrivals,
smugglers”
(
Neve
& Russell, 2011)
.
“R
esource stealers” and
security threats
(Rutledge, 2011).
Political rhetoric
“
Canada’s Generous Program for Refugee Resettlement Is Undermined by Human Smugglers Who Abuse Canada’s Immigration System
”
Source: Public Safety Canada, 2010 News Release“Our government is committed to cracking down on bogus refugees.”Source: Immigration Minister’s spokeswoman, 2010.
Slide9Potential Challenges
Are the two cases even comparable?
1999-
We were just
coming out of economic tough times
2009-
We had
just had an economic
crash
Is the anti-refugee sentiment only specific to migrants who arrive by boats?
Are the cases only “situational triggers,” ? (
Sniderman
et al., 2004).
Direction of causation
Do elite attitudes (politicians) influence public attitudes? Or do public attitudes influence elite attitudes?