Despite 74 per cent of Canadians supporting refugees’ right to seek safety, a lack of understanding about immigration nuances looks to be fuelling skepticism and threatening Canada’s humanitarian spirit, according to a new Ipsos survey released on World Refugee Day. 

Statistics from the Ipsos report, which conducted polls in 29 nations, reveal a nation at a crossroads. Canadians are remaining generous and compassionate, yet skeptical and fatigued in the face of refugee commitments, be it government-assisted or privately sponsored cases. 

The report, released on June 19, showed that public support for refugees’ rights to seek safety continues to hold steady around the world despite current geopolitical fragilities and significant cuts to humanitarian aid. Across the 29 countries surveyed, 67 per cent are shown to continue their support of offering refuge to those in need, with support outweighing opposition across all countries polled. 

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However, doubt and cynicism around the motivations behind refugees’ journeys persist in many countries. According to the survey, 62 per cent believe asylum-seekers are primarily seeking economic opportunities rather than fleeing danger, a perception seen first hand by the Archdiocese of Toronto’s Office for Refugees (ORAT). 

“It can be a challenge for those involved in refugee resettlement because as soon as you speak out in public about working with refugees and resettling them to Canada, you kind of sense that there's a softening or a weakening of support for that,” said Deacon Rudy Ovcjak, ORAT director.

“Those that we work with in the parishes and various church communities that we have a close relationship with understand the work that we're doing and how vital it really is.  The 74 per cent of Canadians supporting refugees' right to seek safety reinforces my understanding of the nature of Canadians in that we are very generous people concerned for the suffering of humanity. It is also reflected in the existence of Canada's private sponsorship of refugee programs.”  

Even as more than 400,000 refugees have been successfully resettled to Canada by private sponsors at their own expense over the last four decades, with the Catholic Church and other Christian churches and ecclesial communities, the complexity surrounding understanding immigration as a whole has allowed various public doubts to linger.

Ovcjak feels Canadians may include immigration as a whole with temporary foreign workers and student visa programs, lumping them all together and thinking that it is one and the same as refugee resettlement. Perhaps due to this discrepancy, figures such as 44 per cent of Canadians supporting border closures for immigration remain a reality, according to the Ipsos survey. 

Compassion fatigue may also play a role, with Ovcjak noting that the feeling  likely goes back to the abnormally high immigration levels that Canada had set for itself under the Trudeau Liberals before making significant cuts to immigration levels across the board, including refugee resettlement. 

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Ovcjak emphasized the distinction between Canada’s two refugee resettlement streams: privately sponsored refugees (PSRs) who are supported by families, churches or community groups like ORAT, and Government-Assisted Refugees (GARs), funded and managed by Canada through settlement agencies. 

Ovchak said PSRs typically integrate fairly rapidly, with only 16.3 per cent relying on social assistance after one year, compared to a staggering 93 per cent for GARs. The study goes on to show that by the sixth year, 42.3 per cent of GARs continued to use social assistance in contrast to 17.4 per cent for PSRs.

The inconsistency could also stem from the amount of support that PSRs receive in comparison to GARs. 

“Most PSR are being settled by their families, so if someone is sponsoring their brother, they are going to be there 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, helping them to integrate. If they're being settled by a church, again, they are going to be surrounding that person or family with continual support.”

In turn,  the difference in integration outcomes can play a big role in swaying everyday Canadians’ opinions on refugees.   

“Canadians are generous. We want to welcome people into Canada, we want to save people and respond to their suffering, but they have to come into Canada with an attitude of ‘I want to give back to this country that has done so much for me to welcome me,’ ” Ovcjak said. “What Canadians bristle at is when their generosity is taken advantage of.” 

Looking forward, he highlighted a backlog of nearly 100,000 PSR applications, which is likely to result in processing times of three to four years, a situation he called “intolerable” for refugees in dire situations and their families.

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Immigration Canada has reduced intake by imposing a moratorium on new Group of Five and community sponsorship applications while cutting the global PSR cap by 20 per cent, with ORAT facing a 36-per-cent reduction in its sponsorship allocations. While these measures aim to address the backlog, they strain organizations like ORAT, which advocates for more spots and utilizes public policy programs and reserve pools to maximize resettlement. 

Ovcjak also emphasized that these cuts place sponsorship agreement holders (SAHs) in a difficult position, limiting their ability to meet demand for refugee resettlement.