Americans rushed to look-up info about moving abroad as election night unfolded. Google search data shows a mind-blowing 1‚270% jump in “move to Canada“ searches just after East Coast polls closed; while New Zealand and Australia related searches went up by 2000% and 820% respectively
Immigration websites got super-busy too - New Zealandʼs official site had 25k visitors from the US in one day (thats way more than the usual 1‚500). Evan Green‚ who works at Canadaʼs oldest immigration law firm says “Every half hour there is a new email enquiry“
The rush to find new homes abroad isnt new - it happened during the last election too But this time its different because of how split people are about important stuff. A big Edison Research poll shows that most US voters think their democracy might be in trouble; many worry about losing personal freedoms (including stuff like what schools teach kids)
On social-media platform Reddit lots of worried Americans share tips in a group called “r/AmerExit“ about:
- Best countries to move to
- How to get work visas
- Finding jobs abroad
- Dealing with paperwork
Heather Bell‚ an immigration pro in Vancouver says more people are asking about moving to Canada these days However she points out a hard truth: “Immigrating to Canada is not easy‚ especially now with the government reducing the numbers of temporary and permanent migrants coming to Canada“