Want to move to Canada? Get in line
Among the many impacts of Donald Trump’s Election Day victory is an apparent spike in Americans’ interest in Canada. According to job-search site Indeed.com, U.S.-based searches for employment in Canada rose Tuesday night at 10 times the rate of previous nights. And Google (GOOG) reported that search terms like “Canada immigration” spiked as the election returns rolled in.
Another telltale sign: The website for the Canadian immigration office crashed last night, and as of Wednesday morning it still wasn’t operational. Media reports have blamed the trouble on a rush of traffic from skittish Trump opponents.
Officials from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
“Of course, it’s far too soon to guess how many of these searchers will make a move after the shock wears off,” said Indeed.com chief economist Jedd Kolko in a press release. “But the jump in searches shows how many Americans were surprised by Trump’s victory and are thinking about their options elsewhere.”
A spokeswoman for My Visa Place, which provides immigration services to people looking to emigrate to Canada said the company is fielding more calls from worried Americans. “The phones haven’t stopped ringing,” she said.
Canada, though, has plenty of its own challenges.
Last year, its economy grew 1.1 percent, well less than its southern neighbor’s 2.6 percent gain, as the country was hurt by low oil prices. Economists there don’t forecast much of an improvement this year, thanks partly to last summer’s fire in Alberta that destroyed an area the size of Delaware and forced a shutdown of its huge oil fields, which are now back on-line.
Americans looking for a job in Canada may find few offers. Unemployment in October was 7 percent, well above the U.S. rate of 4.9 percent. Still, Canadian businesses added 44,000 net new jobs during the month, better than the contraction economists had expected. Lumberjacks might do well: Among the industries showing increases was natural resources, which posted its first noteworthy gain since March 2015.
Looking ahead, IHS economist Arlene Kish said she’s feeling optimistic about Canada, which she says is benefiting from an open immigration policy.
“There are definite signs of improvement,” she wrote in an email. “An increase in oil prices should result in a rebound in investment activity in energy-producing provinces, which we are just beginning to see now. As well, the federal government has an aggressive infrastructure investment plan (public transit, green infrastructure, social infrastructure), along with trade and transportation initiatives that will help create jobs, drive growth, and diversify Canada’s economy.”
Not all Canadians, however, are as enthused about immigration, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s plan to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees has been controversial.
A recent survey by the Globe and Mail newspaper of 1,000 Canadians found that 39 percent of respondents wanted the government to accept fewer immigrants in 2017 than the 300,000 it admitted this year. Thirty-seven percent wanted the same number of foreigners to be able to permanently settle in their country, while 16 percent supported an increase.
They weren’t specifically asked about taking in more Yanks.