Despairing over Trump's win, many Americans mull leaving the country

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% 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% while those for Australia jumped 820%.

Late on 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.

"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 re-election 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.

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.

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.

Reuters