Emigrating to Canada to escape Trump, a laborious process

Ben Simon – Agence France-Presse in Toronto

Published at 10:01

• United States

In recent months, Randall Cohn, an immigration lawyer in Western Canada, has received numerous calls from across the border as the presidential campaign in the United States has evolved.

The first wave dates back to June after Joe Biden's disastrous debate against Donald Trump. A “period of panic” among Democrats anxious to see the Republican return to the White House and who rushed to inquire about the possibilities of emigrating to Canada.

“It died down a little when Kamala Harris became the nominee, and then I had a new wave in the last two weeks,” the Vancouver-based lawyer told AFP.

After the former president's victory on November 5, Google Trends saw a more than 1,000% increase in searches made in the United States on ways to move to Canada. A trend already observed in 2016, the date of Donald Trump's first election.

It did not start with him because, in the 80s, the media had echoed the same phenomenon after Ronald Reagan's victory over Jimmy Carter.

But it is difficult to quantify the number of Americans who chose to rebuild their lives in Canada solely because of the presidential election result. And in reality, the real figure is apparently low.

Settling in Canada is not so simple and, even for American neighbours, it is now more difficult than before, point out specialist lawyers.

“A person who has no pre-existing connection with Canada is going to have a very, very difficult time,” Jacqueline Bonisteel of the Ottawa-based Corporate Immigration Law Firm told AFP.

“Exhausting and costly”

Me Cohn explains that he has received calls from people who are “quite wealthy” and distraught by the return of Donald Trump but without any concrete ideas about the procedures.

“I have to explain to them that it’s not as easy as they think and that there’s no way to buy permanent residency,” the lawyer says.

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A former Brooklyn resident, Shanthony Exum moved to Montreal during the pandemic ahead of the 2020 election. She warns Americans who want to emigrate for political reasons alone are wary.

The process is “discouraging, exhausting and expensive,” the 42-year-old artist tells AFP.

Her love of Montreal has helped her persevere, but for her, “it’s easier to run toward something than to run away from something.”

So while it’s unlikely that Democrats will turn out in droves In Canada, experts expect a massive increase in demand.

Sean Rehaag, director of the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University, noted that the number of American citizens seeking asylum in Canada increased when Donald Trump took office in 2017.

In 2016, 129 Americans applied for asylum in Canada. That number rose to 869 the following year.

These were mainly “children of people who fear deportation due to a change in their immigration status after spending years in the United States.”

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“Principles”

With Donald Trump's promises to carry out “mass expulsions” of undocumented immigrants, Canadian authorities have put the border on alert.

And crossing the border is not easy: recent changes to the migration pact between the two countries make filing an asylum application in Canada more complex and can more easily lead to deportation to the United States.

Because, like the Dublin agreement in Europe, migrants must file their asylum application in the first country of arrival.

A system that is now being contested in Canada because “it does not meet our principles of respect for people,” explains Jamie Chai Yun Liew, an immigration specialist at the University of of Ottawa.

She cites in particular the essential differences in the way Canada considers the most vulnerable groups, and therefore asylum claims related to violence against women or discrimination suffered by transgender people.

Urging Canada to review the pact with the United States, the expert calls on the country to “carefully examine” Donald Trump's record and his frankly conservative project for his second presidency.