With things getting a little touch-and-go down south, I’d expect at least some Americans to try and move to Canada either through family connections or through work. Has anyone noticed that happening more often now, or seen reports of higher numbers of US expats? Would that make immigration woes even worse? Or am I off base, and we aren’t expecting much to change as a result?
Are Americans immigrating more?
- Thread starter satoshi
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So far not much but anecdotes, eg reports of more doctors and nurses applying through various provincial programs to fill shortages (great but in overall immigration numbers, a drop in the bucket), and some high profile individuals.
Numbers? Won't see much for a while. And it will be fuzzy data because likely spread across a number of programs (including some Canadian citizens just 'returning', and probably a fair number of PRs who've been working in USA - both of which we're seeing - anecdotally - already). The statistics ('numbers') for this will be tricky too since some things aren't captured automatically by IRCC or Statscan, and a lot of omissions - the next census in 2026 will give a snapshot (when data released) but interpreting the flows of people is harder.
Will it make immigration 'woes' worse? Depends what you mean.
Just on pure numbers compared to government targets / estimates, simply depends how much the chatter translates to reality. The USA and its population/ pop flows are a lot bigger (8X the pop) so small-ish amounts can have a big impact.
But whatever the push/pull of political mood is at any given moment, the push/pull of the economy and jobs market are probably bigger determinants on the 'numbers' side. And how the political mood translates into push factors is not always obvious.
For an example, the tussle over H-1B programs: on the one hand, if it's harder to get H-1B candidates into USA, some companies might set up shop in Canada to employ people here. But those same companies/other companies might just go all out to recruit professionals under CUSMA programs from Canada and Mexico. Which has a bigger impact? Hard to say in advance.
