Canada's immigration rate is the highest in the world, so it is often said that the world comes to Canada. Among our immigrant population of roughly 6 million, we have 10,000 or more people coming from each of 82 countries and at least 1,000 coming from each of another 150 countries. A recent Environics survey conducted on behalf of the Canada's World initiative indicates that if the world is interested in Canada, the attraction is decidedly mutual.

The Canada's World survey found that Canadians follow international news with almost the same regularity with which they follow news closer to home at the federal, provincial, and local levels. Nearly eight in ten Canadians (79 per cent) say they pay attention to issues and events in the world outside Canada at least somewhat closely. By comparison, 84 per cent of Canadians say they follow provincial events at least somewhat closely while slightly smaller proportions say the same of federal (80 per cent) and local (75 per cent) news.

News of the world

Notably, young people age 15 to 24, sometimes saddled with a reputation for disengagement, are less likely than other Canadians to follow domestic news — but are nearly on par (76 per cent) with the national average when it comes to keeping up with global issues and events.

Young Canadians may be less interested than their older compatriots in the latest chapter of the federal-provincial soap opera, but when it comes to the fate of the planet and their fellow human beings around the world, they are anything but tuned out.

Last year, the Pew Global Attitudes Project placed Canadians' engagement with international news in a global perspective: Pew asked members of the public in 47 countries whether they tend to follow international news consistently or mostly just “when something big is happening.” Canada emerged as the fourth most engaged country in the world, after Germany, France and Mali.

Connections

Canadians' interest in the world does not end when the television or computer is turned off or when the last page of the newspaper has been read. The Environics/Canada's World study finds remarkable webs of connection between individual Canadians and people and places elsewhere in the world.

Two-thirds of Canadians (68 per cent) say they feel a special connection to an area of the world outside Canada. While the most commonly named places of connection are in Western Europe and Scandinavia (31 per cent) or the United States (19 per cent), significant proportions of Canadians name countries in other parts of Europe and throughout the rest of the world: Asia, Africa, Central and South America.

One might expect the 19 per cent of Canadians who were born outside this country to feel a strong connection with their homeland. And indeed, foreign-born Canadians are especially likely to report a sense of feeling linked to another part of the world. But among Canadians who say they feel they personally have international ties, just a third (34 per cent) cite an ancestral link as the reason.

Others (both Canadian-born and foreign-born) say they feel connected to the country or region they named because of a simple personal interest, perhaps inspired by a novel or a school project (27 per cent), a travel experience, perhaps with parents on a vacation trip (17 per cent); because they feel the place has a special relationship with Canada (12 per cent); or because they have friends there, whom they may have met in person or online (nine per cent).

In other words, Canadians' connections to the world are rooted in an expansive sense of affinity with people elsewhere — not merely in a sense of tribalism.

Travel

Canadians' travel records attest to the curiosity they report about the rest of the world. Nearly three quarters of Canadians (73 per cent) have traveled outside Canada and the United States at some point in their lives. Seven in ten (69 per cent) have ventured outside this region as tourists while 44 per cent have done so to visit friends and family.

Smaller proportions have traveled abroad to work (18 per cent), study (14 per cent) or volunteer with an organization (8 per cent).

Although pleasure travel can be deeply meaningful and greatly expand one's conception of the world, the fact that millions of Canadians have traveled abroad either to participate in international projects (work, educational or volunteer) or to visit people close to them suggests a depth of engagement with the world that goes far beyond a cruise or a stay at a sun-and-sand resort. The Canada's World study offers a remarkable picture of human connections across political borders.

Money

Those of a nitty-gritty turn of mind often say that if you want to really understand a situation, you have to follow the money. When we follow Canadians' money, the story of private citizens' engagement with the international scene only becomes more dramatic.

Four in ten Canadians (39 per cent) report that in the last year they have made a donation to an organization that addresses causes or issues in another country. Among those who gave money in the past 12 months, 45 per cent report that their donation was for less than $250, but 15 per cent report donations of $1,000 or more, with the average donation being $860. Projected to the Canadian population at large, this translates into almost 8.5 million Canadians contributing approximately $7.3 billion over the past year.

Canadians' contributions to the rest of the world are not limited to charitable gifts to organizations: millions of people also support relatives or close friends living abroad.

Nearly one in five Canadians (18 per cent) say that over the past twelve months, they have sent money to individuals in other countries. Although the number of Canadians who make such contributions is smaller than the number who give to organizations, people dig deep to help those closest to them: the average contribution Canadians made to their friends or relatives overseas during the past year was $5,938. (Six thousand bucks may not put much bread on the table here in Canada but can support a family or even a village in some places on this planet.)

If we project that figure to the population at large, we can estimate that 3.4 million Canadians sent approximately $20 billion to family and others in 2007. By comparison, the Canadian government's official development assistance in 2006 totalled only $4 billion.

Life abroad

It's not just their money Canadians are interested in sending abroad: substantial majorities of Canadians say they would be interested in living in another part of the world for a period of three months or more, whether to volunteer (62 per cent), work (55 per cent), study (63 per cent) or, most commonly, simply immerse themselves in another language and culture (71 per cent).

These Canadians include idealistic youth seeking to explore and make a difference in the world as well as vital baby boomers who are facing retirement and considering ways to make meaningful use of the second half of their adult lives.

Foreign-born Canadians are as likely as other Canadians to express enthusiasm for a prolonged experience abroad. Some members of this group likely want to return to their nations of origin to “give back” to the places where they grew up while others, having successfully conquered Canada, likely want to explore an entirely new landscape (perhaps hoping that this time they'll find somewhere with better weather).

Often we hear stories in the news about globalization and our “shrinking world” and imagine that these words apply mostly to governments and multinational corporations. The results of the Canada's World survey, however, indicate that globalization is a phenomenon that affects individuals deeply — influencing the movement of their labour, attention, money and affections.

Although money is certainly not the only measure of caring, the fact that individual Canadians send abroad an estimated five times the financial support their country offers through institutional channels suggests that Canadians' personal engagement with and investment in the world is much greater than their leaders may yet realize.

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