- A new Ipsos study found 70% support stricter immigration rules among immigrants living in Canada 10 years or less.
- Most newcomers still say immigration helps the economy, but 80% reported worse housing access than expected.
- Ottawa has already cut permanent resident targets and plans to reduce temporary residents to 5% of the population by end of 2026.
(CANADA) — The Institute for Canadian Citizenship and Ipsos released a study on April 18, 2026 showing that 7 out of 10 new immigrants in Canada support stricter immigration rules, a finding that lands as Ottawa tightens targets and rewrites parts of the asylum system.
The report, titled The Newcomer Perspective – Canada, surveyed immigrants who have lived in Canada for 10 years or less. It found that 70% support stricter immigration regulations even as 66% said immigration benefits the Canadian economy.
Housing and finances featured heavily in the findings. 80% said access to affordable housing was worse than they expected before moving, while 56% said Canada fell short of expectations as a place to get ahead financially.
Ottawa has already shifted course. Through Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the government lowered permanent resident targets for 2025, 2026, and 2027, and set a mandate to reduce temporary residents, including international students and foreign workers, to 5% of the total population by the end of 2026.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller framed that turn in blunt terms in March 2026. “Temporary residency in Canada should not be seen as a guaranteed path to permanent residency or Canadian citizenship. Being in Canada temporarily has to actually mean something. It is not a right to become a permanent resident or a Canadian citizen,” Miller said.
Parliament also changed the law. Bill C-12 received Royal Assent on March 26, 2026, bringing stricter asylum eligibility rules and broader powers to cancel or suspend immigration documents in the public interest.
The study’s findings place immigrants themselves inside that policy shift, not outside it. The release described it as the first time a majority of the immigrant community has called for slower, more regulated growth, with pressure on housing and healthcare driving much of that sentiment.
That mix of restraint and support runs through the numbers. Newcomers did not reject immigration as an economic force, but many said the country has not matched the promises they associated with life in Canada.
International students face one of the clearest effects. Permit availability has fallen by 43%, and citizenship by descent rules under Bill C-3 add stricter “substantial connection” requirements.
Asylum seekers face a sharper cut-off. Claims made more than one year after entry are no longer referred to the Immigration and Refugee Board under the 2026 reforms.
Current residents already in Canada are also affected by the rebalancing. Policy shifts toward integration include the regularization of an estimated 115,000 protected persons, moving attention from admitting more people to settling those already present.
The Canadian debate sits alongside a harder line in the United States. On April 10, 2026, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a memo titled Special Immigrant Juvenile Classification and Deferred Action that ended 2022 policies automatically considering deferred action for certain applicants.
USCIS also resumed personal investigations for naturalization applicants as of April 2026 under Section 335(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, returning to what the source described as a totality of circumstances review for Good Moral Character. Executive Order 14160, issued in early 2025, continues to guide Department of Homeland Security policy with an emphasis on citizenship as a privilege tied to strict compliance with legal requirements.
The parallel matters less as a legal comparison than as a measure of political direction across two neighboring systems that have both faced high migration levels. Canada’s survey captured newcomers asking for tighter rules even while defending immigration’s economic role, a combination that cuts against a simple pro- or anti-immigration divide.
Ipsos and the Institute for Canadian Citizenship put numbers behind that tension. Most respondents backed stricter regulation, most said housing disappointed them, more than half said the country fell short financially, and roughly two-thirds still said immigration helps the economy.
Healthcare and infrastructure sit behind much of that unease. The study tied newcomer frustration to strains they encounter after arrival, especially in housing and healthcare, rather than to a rejection of immigration itself.
Those pressures have become central to the way ministers describe the system. Ottawa’s lower permanent resident targets, the temporary resident cap, and the asylum changes in Bill C-12 all point to a government trying to align admission levels with housing supply and service capacity.
Canadian residents tracking those changes can find federal updates through the IRCC Newsroom. U.S. policy documents cited in the cross-border context are posted through USCIS policy memoranda and the Department of Homeland Security website.
The April study leaves a stark picture of the mood among newer arrivals: immigrants still see value in Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s broader nation-building project, but many now want the system that brought them there to move more slowly and with tighter controls.
