Public Opinion, Immigration and New Technologies

Project Lead

Team Members

Sub-Theme: Dominant and Alternative Narratives on Immigration in Canada

Projects in this sub-theme examine how social media and ADTs influence politics, including immigration politics and public attitudes, focusing on Canada, its migrant and diaspora communities, as well as other countries and transnational public spheres, narratives and discourses.

Objective

This project focuses on public opinion in Canada on immigration and new technologies, and more specifically on immigration policies, immigrants’ integration, and AI. The project aims to measure how Canadians perceive these issues, uncover unconscious biases, and assess how demographic factors, immigration background, political attitudes, national identity, technological and AI literacy, among other factors, shape their opinions.

More specifically, the project aims to assess Canadians’ attitudes toward the use of new technologies by governmental agencies in services for immigrants and other Canadians, measuring expectations toward the success of various integration programs and integration success of various immigrants’ profiles, and comparing how social trust varies across contexts, online and in-person.

Research question(s)

Are Canadians biased against immigrants regarding the use of AI by governmental agencies, and what factors drive these biases?
What factors influence Canadians expectations of immigrant’s integration success and government integration programs’ success whether online or in person?
How do online contacts compare to in-person contacts in the development of social trust toward Canadian-born and foreign-born citizens?

Methodology

This project will rely mostly on survey experiments to address the research questions. Comparisons across conditions will allow researchers to unobtrusively measure citizens preferences, attitudes, and biases. The potential role and influence of other factors will also be measured and evaluated.