When Anumita Ghosh talks about immigration, she speaks as someone who believes in it. The Oakville resident says immigration is fundamental to Canada’s economy, culture and society. But after arriving from the U.S. in 2022 and seeing pressure on jobs, housing and healthcare, she says the issue is not whether Canada should welcome newcomers, but whether it is planning well enough to support them.
Her view reflects data highlighted in a recent Ipsos and Institute for Canadian Citizenship study of permanent residents and citizens who have been in Canada for 10 years or less, using responses collected through the ICC’s Canoo app, which the organizations describe as a verified newcomer platform for permanent residents and citizens.
Mauricio Vieira, vice-president at Ipsos, said the findings should not be read as a simple rejection of immigration. In a webinar presenting the study, he said newcomers are “also part of the immigration discussion,” but argued their concerns overlap with those of the wider public, especially around housing, healthcare and the economy. “Even so,” he said, newcomers remain pragmatic and optimistic, and continue to be “a fundamental part of Canada’s present and future.”
Seven out of 10 newcomers surveyed agreed the government should have “stricter regulation,” while supporting immigrant integration, while two thirds said immigration is good for the Canadian economy, Vieira said.
But that does not necessarily mean newcomers are turning against immigration. Wendy Cukier, a professor at Toronto Metropolitan University who studies immigration and labour markets, said many of the pressures now being blamed on immigration reflect deeper problems in planning, labour-market alignment and integration support.
She added Canada has long struggled to connect immigration pathways with actual job demand and to ensure skilled newcomers can build stable lives once they arrive.
For Ghosh, that gap is personal. She said Canada offered her peace of mind and stability that the U.S. did not, especially because healthcare was not tied to an employer. But she also spent about a year and a half trying to find stable work after arriving in 2022, and said the strain she sees in the job market and healthcare system has made better planning feel urgent.
Ghosh wants transparency in how decisions are made and clearer pathways for newcomers to integrate into the workforce would make the system feel more equitable. “I feel this information should be easy to get and made simpler to understand. Do we need to pay thousands of dollars to just understand the system?” she said.
Trupti Sedani, an entrepreneur who moved to Canada in 2019 and became a citizen last year, said she believes Canada needs immigrants and values the diversity her children are growing up around. But she said immigration policy also needs to better match what newcomers expect from infrastructure, services and quality of life.
The backdrop to this debate is a change in public mood. An Environics Institute study in 2024 found that 58 per cent of Canadians said the country accepts too many immigrants, a level not seen since 1998. Days later, Ottawa lowered its permanent resident targets for 2025, 2026 and 2027, and said it would also reduce temporary resident volumes to five per cent of the population by the end of 2026.
Shilpashree Jagannathan is a Toronto-based freelance journalist, copywriter, and content strategist whose work has appeared in CBC News, New Canadian Media, Business Insider, TRT World, and Mint, among others. She has reported on immigration, labour, elections, housing, climate impacts, and social justice across Canadian and international contexts. With roots in business journalism in India and a strong investigative and research background, she approaches her reporting with investigative depth and empathy, tracing how policy and power shape lived experience.