Immigration.ca - Canada Immigration News - June 2007
In a recent survey conducted by CanWest News Service, nearly half of the Canadians polled agree that the government should be more cautious in judging the legitimacy of refugee claims. Yet almost as many - 43 per cent - also said that officials need to be more cautious about mistakenly rejecting legitimate refugee claims.
Patterns emerged with regards to region. British Columbians expressed the most hesitancy over refugee claims while Manitoba and Saskatchewan were the least concerned provinces.
Another poll on the issue, conducted by CanWest just weeks earlier, found that 41% of Canadians agree that Canada should do more to assist refugees than other countries. That number is up significantly from 20 years ago when only 1 in 4 Canadians would agree. The most likely people to agree are British Columbians, people under 35 and people in urban areas.
Refugees are defined as "persons who are outside the country of their nationality and have a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group." Tens of thousands of people apply for refugee status in Canada each year.
Source:
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=25898d25-e6f8-490d-b629-b2425519fcb0
