Social and Economic Context and Attitudes toward Immigrants in Canadian Cities

It has long been a part of the conventional wisdom among both social scientists and laypersons that periods of unemployment are characterized by higher levels of prejudice and discrimination directed at immigrant groups, particularly those of a minority ethnic or racial background. Yet surprisingly little research has addressed this issue. This article presents a study of the effects of a number of socioeconomic features of Canadian cities, particularly their unemployment rates, on the attitudes toward immigrants of their native-born residents. Using data from a national study of ethnicity and multiculturalism, we estimate several regression models predicting three separate dimensions of attitude toward immigrants and including as independent variables both individual characteristics and structural characteristics of city of residence. We find no evidence of a sizeable effect of local unemployment rate on attitude toward immigrants. Of the other contextual variables included in our models, the only one consistently influencing these attitudes is rate of population growth. Of the individual level variables included in the models, educational attainment and income, along with mother tongue, exhibit the strongest and most consistent effects on the attitude dimensions.