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Interest in moving to Canada, New Zealand and Australia is growing

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The Immigration New Zealand site had 25,000 new American users on November 7

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Many Americans fear American democracy is under threat

By Lewis Jackson

SYDNEY, – As U.S. exit polls began pointing toward a second presidency for Donald Trump, many Americans were already looking for a different kind of exit: going abroad.

Google searches for “moving to Canada” jumped 1,270% in the 24 hours after polls closed on the U.S. East Coast on Tuesday, according to company data. Similar searches for moving to New Zealand soared almost 2,000%, while those for Australia jumped 820%.

Late Wednesday evening on the U.S. East Coast, Google searches for emigration were reaching unprecedented highs in all three countries, according to a Google official.

The search giant does not provide absolute figures, but data from the Immigration New Zealand website shows the site recorded some 25,000 new US users on November 7, compared to 1,500 on the same day last year.

Some immigration lawyers are also inundated with questions.

“Every half hour we get a new email request,” said Evan Green, managing partner of Canada’s oldest immigration law firm, Green and Spiegel.

The sudden enthusiasm for emigration echoes the interest in overseas departures seen after Trump’s 2016 victory. This time, however, the Republican’s re-election follows a particularly divisive campaign in which Nearly three-quarters of American voters said they felt American democracy was under threat, according to Edison Research exit polls.

Many Americans also fear that his presidency will further widen the divide between Democrats and Republicans on issues such as race, gender, what and how children are taught, and reproductive rights.

“Trump is obviously the impulse, but it is also societal. The majority of Americans voted for him and some people no longer necessarily feel comfortable living in this kind of society. People are afraid of losing their freedoms ” Green said.

In a Reddit group dedicated to those leaving the United States, called “r/AmerExit,” hundreds of people shared suggestions for ideal destinations and tips for obtaining visas and jobs. Some users said they feared for their country, their safety, or both after Trump’s election.

Even before the election, these fears were increasingly being raised by Americans seeking to emigrate to Canada, according to Heather Bell, an immigration consultant at the Vancouver law firm Bell Alliance.

However, few manage to follow through, Bell said.

“Immigrating to Canada is not easy, especially now that the government is reducing the number of temporary and permanent migrants coming to Canada,” she said.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modification to the text.