TFW program path to citizenship support declined since last year: Poll

Support for the temporary foreign worker program being a guaranteed path to citizenship has dropped since last year, and the majority say they view the program more negatively than positively.

Source: Rawpixel

Support for the temporary foreign worker program being a guaranteed path to citizenship has dropped since last year, and the majority say they view the program more negatively than positively, according to a recent poll.

Angus Reid surveyed 1,570 adult Canadians in a poll released on Thursday to gauge their views on the program. Fifty-two per cent of respondents said they viewed the program more negatively than positively, compared to just 23 per cent who said they still view it to be positive for Canada in general.

According to the independent think tanks’ polling, just under one third of Canadians, 30 per cent, said that “all temporary foreign workers should have a pathway to citizenship in Canada, a six per cent drop when compared to polling on the same question last year.

Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they were familiar with the program.

When those who said they were unsure were excluded from the polling, two-thirds said they did not think the program should guarantee a pathway to citizenship for migrants — a seven-point increase from the previous year.

Among those who disapproved of the program writ large, one-fifth said they have an “entirely negative view,” while only four per cent of those with a positive view said their view was “entirely positive.”

Nearly half, 45 per cent, said they agreed that the Liberal government “exploits temporary foreign workers.” Excluding those who were unsure what to think of the program, 55 per cent said they believed the government was exploiting the migrants.

Over half of Canadians said the Liberals took in too many migrants through the TFW program, while nearly a third said the feds welcomed “way too many” temporary foreign workers.

A Fraser Institute study released in July found that in 2024 alone, 1,916,700 immigrants and migrants entered Canada. Of those, 912,900 were from the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

The program requires business owners to fill out a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) to prove that there were no Canadians willing to do the job in their region. However, migrants from the International Mobility Program are also counted as work permit holders, who don’t require an LMIA. Individuals holding study permits are permitted to work up to 24 hours per week.

According to data released by Statistics Canada on Wednesday, Canada had a total of 2,526,773 work or study permit holders by April 2025 — over 60 per cent of whom held only work permits.

Despite the majority of Canadians having a negative impact on the program as a whole, 58 per cent said that temporary foreign workers are unfairly blamed for the economic problems in Canada.

The majority, 54 per cent, still pointed to the program as having a negative impact on the labour market; 61 per cent said the program harms young workers in Canada, and two-thirds said the TFW program hurts the housing market. Thirty-nine per cent said the program was “good” for Canada’s economy overall.

Among those who said migrants in the TFW program are blamed for economic problems in Canada, 57 per cent still said the program was “bad” for the housing situation, nearly half said it harmed young workers in Canada, and 39 per cent said it had a net negative effect on the labour market for Canadians.

The margin of error for a comparable probability-based random sample of the same size would be no greater than 2 per cent 19 times out of 20.

Earlier this month, a separate poll by Abacus Data suggested that 44 per cent of Canadians would be in favour of scrapping the TFW program in its entirety.