A national poll conducted in 2011 by Dalhousie researcher Howard Ramos, in conjunction with the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, found Canadians valued gender equality, freedom of religion and tolerance of others. While 97 per cent of Canadians said adopting these values should be a condition of being granted citizenship, what was surprising to Ramos was that 96 per cent of immigrants agreed, showing immigrants have already adopted these “Canadian values” and are already well integrated into Canadian society.

Other research has shown a lack of consensus among Canadians that values should be part of the immigration and citizenship discussion. A 2013 survey conducted by Forum Research revealed 49 per cent of Canadians feel the country should only accept immigrants from countries that share the same values, while 43 per cent were in favour of admitting immigrants from all nations. This data surprised some researchers since Canada has long been praised in the international sphere as non-discriminatory regarding which countries immigrants are accepted from, relying more on eligibility criteria such as education and work experience. At least, that was the thinking behind the points system, which focused on objective criteria including skills and education. The new shift in policy is seen by some as putting subjectivity back into immigration policy, which has some worried it could hinder the ongoing development of Canada’s culture.

Read full article

Source: Canadian Immigrant, April 2, 2014 By Lisa Evans