Americans research ‘moving abroad’ after Donald Trump’s poll win; Canada, New Zealand & Australia top destinations

When exit polls began pointing to Republican candidate Donald Trump's decisive victory in the US presidential elections, several dejected Americans started looking for another kind of exit: moving abroad, reported NDTV on November 8.

Data showed that after the US East Coast polls closed on Tuesday, Google searches for 'move to Canada' surged 1,270 per cent in the 24 hours. Other searches, like moving to New Zealand, climbed nearly 2,000 per cent, while those for Australia jumped 820 per cent.

According to a Google official, the searches for emigration were hitting all-time highs for all these three countries on Wednesday evening on the US East Coast.

Though Google didn't provide absolute figures, data from the Immigration New Zealand website showed the site logged some 25,000 new US users on November 7, in comparison to 1,500 for the same day in 2023. Also, a few immigration lawyers are also being inundated with queries.

New email enquiry

Evan Green, managing partner at Canada's oldest immigration law firm, Green and Spiegel, said, as quoted by NDTV, “Every half hour, there is a new email enquiry.”

This enthusiasm for emigration echoes the interest in moving abroad witnessed after Donald Trump's victory in 2016.

According to Edison Research exit polls, this time Trump's re-election has followed a particularly divisive campaign where nearly three-quarters of US voters said they felt American democracy was under threat.

Apart from this, several Americans are also worried that his presidency could drive a bigger wedge between Democrats and Republicans on issues such as race, gender, reproductive rights and more.

"Trump is obviously the impetus, but it's also societal. The majority of Americans voted for him and some people don't necessarily feel comfortable living in that kind of society anymore. People are afraid they are going to lose freedoms," said Green.

Hundreds of people shared their suggestions in a Reddit group dedicated to those leaving the US, called "r/AmerExit". They spoke about ideal destinations and tips for getting visas and jobs. At the same time, others feared for their country, their safety, or both following Trump's election.

Not only post-elections but even before that, fears were increasingly cited by Americans looking to emigrate to Canada, according to Heather Bell, an immigration consultant at Vancouver law firm Bell Alliance.

"Immigrating to Canada is not easy, especially now with the government reducing the numbers of temporary and permanent migrants coming to Canada," she said.