With former president Donald Trump securing enough electoral votes to return for a second term at the White House, social media is alight with commentary from those who disagree with both his past and promised policies bringing the country to the political far right.
The "how do I move to Canada?" jokes date back to when Trump was campaigning in the lead-up to the 2016 election but, after Nov. 5, have expanded to a far wider range of countries. On Google Trends (GOOGL) , searches like "how to move" and "work visa" followed by the country in question soared by more than 500%
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Social media reacts: 'Should I move to Japan or the UK?'
"Don't mind me trying to figure out if I can move to Australia," wrote Allie Temple on Meta (META) platform Threads.
"Step one: go to Montreal, Canada," writes Amber Choo. "Step two: fall in love with person with beautiful French accent. Step three: move to Canada, live happily ever after."
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"Should I move to Japan or the United Kingdom?" wrote another Threads user named Ryan Mohr under a heavily upvoted post with a picture of a Japanese flag overlaid on the Union Jack
While most of these posts are written in a humorous light, there are always a number of people who actually follow through with such plans. The Canadian government's page on immigrating to the country crashed during the 2016 U.S. presidential election while just under 2,000 Americans applied for permanent residency in Canada in the following year.
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Amid a lot of internet noise, these are the immigration laws to know
As the blowback to posts of this nature quickly reminded those writing them, different nations' immigration laws do not allow one without citizenship to a given country to just move there because they want to.
The simplest way for a non-citizen to move for a short period of time would be the digital nomad visa that are increasingly being launched by countries around the world to attract professionals with income from abroad. Longer-term immigration is subject to stricter requirements that usually come down to a work offer, marriage or a significant investment.
"Hello to all my fellow Americans who suddenly want to move to Europe," writes Berlin-based travel influencer David Ruddock. "My advice: get an actual job in Europe. Digital nomad-ing is not as easy or as glamorous as it sounds. [...] Bouncing to Croatia or Portugal because you read a cool Substack about it is probably going to end in tears or a very short stay."
The language factor is also something that is often under-appreciated by Americans and other Westerners who have lived abroad for short periods of time while working for their home country — as a result, English-speaking countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom are the only ones that have historically seen a spike in American arrivals once the dust of post-election reactions has settled.
"As Donald Trump has declared victory, his pledge to tighten immigration policies could lead to more people seeking entry into Canada," writes Montreal-based SEO specialist Mike Hunter. “Cross-border policies, including those impacting travel and tourism, will also see a change."
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