IT’S BEEN A GOOD RUN Donald Trump, with former first lady Melania Trump, waves at supporters during an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center in Florida on Wednesday. —AP
SYDNEY — As US election exit polls began to point to a second presidency for Donald Trump, many Americans were already looking for another kind of exit: moving abroad.
Google searches for “move to Canada” surged 1,270 percent in the 24 hours after US East Coast polls closed on Tuesday, company data shows. Similar searches about moving to New Zealand climbed nearly 2,000 percent while those for Australia jumped 820 percent.
Late Wednesday evening on the US East Coast, Google searches about emigrating were hitting all-time highs for all three countries, according to a Google official.
The search giant does not provide absolute figures but data from the Immigration New Zealand website showed the site logged some 25,000 new US users on Nov. 7, compared to 1,500 for the same day last year.
Some immigration lawyers are also being inundated with queries.
Feels like 2016
“Every half hour there is a new email enquiry,” said Evan Green, managing partner at Canada’s oldest immigration law firm, Green and Spiegel.
The sudden enthusiasm for emigration echoes the interest in moving abroad seen after Trump’s 2016 victory.
This time, however, the Republican’s reelection has followed a particularly divisive campaign in which nearly three-quarters of US voters said they felt American democracy was under threat, according to Edison Research exit polls.
Many Americans are also worried that his presidency could drive a bigger wedge between Democrats and Republicans on issues such as race, gender, what and how children are taught, and reproductive rights.
“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.
Visa tips
In a Reddit group dedicated to those leaving the US, called “r/AmerExit,” hundreds shared suggestions about ideal destinations and tips for getting visas and jobs. Some users said they feared for their country, their safety, or both after Trump’s election.
READ: What’s next for Fil-Am family petitions if Trump wins?
Even before the election, those fears were increasingly cited by Americans looking to emigrate to Canada, according to Heather Bell, an immigration consultant at Vancouver law firm Bell Alliance.
Few, however, manage to follow through, said Bell.
“Immigrating to Canada is not easy, especially now with the government reducing the numbers of temporary and permanent migrants coming to Canada,” she said.