No, you're not moving to Canada if Trump wins


According to the polls, some 60 million people would consider moving out of the country if Donald Trump wins the presidency, but The Washington Examiner says they're all bark and no bite. While a March Ipsos poll showed 19 percent of Americans would consider moving to Canada if Trump wins, and 15 percent would want to border-hop if Clinton takes the White House, the fact of the matter is this kind of chatter happens every year.
"For most Americans, life will go on, more or less as it did before, no matter who wins," The Washington Examiner writes.
Around 3 million people emigrate from America every year, but the move typically isn't politically motivated. And although many claimed they would leave the country when George W. Bush beat John Kerry — and indeed Canadian immigration applications tripled — only a very few people actually followed through and U.S.-Canadian immigration went unchanged in the year after the election.
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Besides, one-third of Americans haven't even been abroad, and less than a third have passports. That's not even to mention the fact that moving abroad can be so expensive that it's out of the question for hundreds of thousands around the country.
Plus most countries require you having a sponsor or a job lined up if you want to immigrate, a process that can range from being tricky to nearly impossible — and I hate to break it to you, but you're likely not going to be granted political refugee status just because you don't agree with Trump.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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