Canadian Citizens' Beliefs about Diversity: Influence of Generation Status, Multicultural Ideology and Cultural Identity on Immigration Attitudes

Traditionally, cross-cultural research tends to make comparisons between groups of people based on their ethnicity or citizenship. In the face of increasingly multicultural societies such as Canada, research suggests that it is necessary to re-evaluate the criteria by which we group people and make comparisons. The present study explores whether factors such as generation status, multicultural ideology, and cultural identity influence Canadian citizens’ immigration attitudes. A community sample (N=306) of Canadian citizens completed an online survey. Results found no significant differences in participants’ immigration attitudes based on their generation status or whether they were part of the ethnic majority/minority. However, there was a strong positive correlation between multicultural ideology and immigration attitudes, and a weak positive correlation between national identity and immigration attitudes. Multicultural ideology also mediated the relationship between generation status and immigration attitudes when comparing first and third generation participants.