Date of Award

Spring 6-11-2023

Document Type

Thesis (Undergraduate)

Department

Quantitative Social Science

First Advisor

Jeremy A. Ferwerda

Abstract

How will Canadian attitudes on welfare and immigration shift in response to the recent surge in irregular border crossings? Do unauthorized asylum seekers pose a greater threat to public support for immigration and welfare policies compared to legal immigrants? At a time when irregular border crossings make national headlines, the Canadian government has simultaneously announced plans to welcome record numbers of legal immigrants. This study builds upon the existing body of literature on "Canadian exceptionalism" in public support for immigration and welfare. It investigates the extent to which these positive attitudes can be maintained in the context of increasing numbers of both legal immigrants and unauthorized asylum seekers. Methodologically, we conduct and analyze a nationally representative vignette survey, a component of which includes a conjoint experiment designed to reflect welfare deservingness heuristics. Our findings reveal that providing information about unauthorized asylum seekers negatively affects Canadian welfare attitudes, an effect not observed when information is provided about legal immigrants. Additionally, we find that information about neither unauthorized asylum seekers nor legal immigrants significantly influence public support for immigration. These results suggest that "Canadian exceptionalism" in immigration attitudes holds true for both legal immigrants and unauthorized asylum seekers. They also suggest that public support for the Canadian welfare state might be eroded due to high levels of irregular border crossing.

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