If your candidate loses tomorrow, don't come here
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By Emily Sohn, Discovery News
Discovery News
Monday, Nov 5, 2012
Every election
season, Americans threaten to move to Canada if their candidates lose.
This year is no different -- and it doesn't matter which political party
voters belong to.
When prompted with, "Moving
to Canada if," Google offers both "…Obama gets reelected" and "…Romney
wins" as suggested endings. Both searches turn up millions of hits.
But setting up life in
another country is more complicated than many people think, experts say.
And although many Americans happily relocate -- often for reasons
unrelated to politics -- their new reality is not necessarily as idyllic
as some may hope. Canada, after all, has problems, too.
Ultimately, threats to move
northward end up falling flat as Americans confront the hoops they need
to jump through to get in, said David Cohen, senior partner at Campbell
Cohen, a Canadian immigration law firm in Montreal. Statistically,
numbers of immigrants don't actually peak every four years.
"We're a large-sized
immigration law firm and we get calls with regularity, but certainly the
intensity of the callers changes after the election and the volume of
calls increase as well," Cohen said. "In the final analysis, when push
comes to shove, Americans are reluctant to give up what they have. I
believe, from my experience, that Americans feel strongly at the end of
the day that the United States is their country. The vast majority
return to the homeland."
With a valid passport, just
about any American can visit Canada for up to six months. But showing
up at the border with a U-Haul full of belongings is a sure way to get
turned back at the border.
In order to move in,
Americans need to start by working toward a permanent residency card,
the equivalent of the American green card. There are more than 60
programs that allow people to qualify for permanent residency.
Most immigrants come
because of a job offer or because they're marrying a Canadian, Cohen
said. Other routes to permanent residency include proving your economic
worth to the country, investing a significant amount of money, starting a
business, or completing a graduate degree at a Canadian university.
Newly granted permanent
residents must spend two out of the next five years in Canada. After
three years of residency, they can apply for citizenship, which requires
taking a citizenship test and proving proficiency in English or French.
Because Canada has a
national healthcare system -- which is something that appeals to many
Americans who dream of the same -- potential immigrants must also
undergo health screening. The Canadian government rejects candidates
with health conditions that it deems too expensive to take on. That can
include cancer that has been in remission for less than five years or
communicable diseases like tuberculosis.
"My wife had high blood
pressure and needed additional tests," said Stephen Saideman, a
political scientist at Carleton University in Ottawa, who moved to
Canada from the U.S. in 2002 -- not to escape the Bush administration,
though that's what many people assumed, but to take a job at McGill
University in Montreal. "It's not a matter of just walking across the
border and saying, "I'm in Canada. Now, treat me like everyone else.'"
Among the headaches and
hassles that Saideman faced during relocation was the discovery that an
immigrant's credit score starts near zero. That made it impossible for
him to get a car loan for the first few months, and his credit card
applications were repeatedly rejected.
It took Saideman and his
family a couple of years and lots of forms to transition from a
temporary work visa to permanent residency status.
They are happy in Canada now, the
schools are good, and people are friendly. But, he pointed out, his
taxes are higher than they were in the States and his new health
insurance is not as good as what he received from the American
university system.
Then there are the little
inconveniences he's had to get used to -- like colder weather, lots of
hockey on TV and not being able to access clips from the Daily Show
through the Canadian Internet.
Politically, Canada doesn't
necessarily offer refuge from either American party anyway. Under
Stephen Harper, the current Canadian government is conservative. Yet,
gay marriage has been legal since 2005. Until permanent residents earn
citizenship, they can't vote or run for office in Canada.
"Anyone who wanted to flee
the Obama or Romney presidency would need to figure this stuff out,"
Saideman said. "And then they'd probably say never mind, it's not worth
it."
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PS. A note from our Canadian Axis of Logic editor: Stay where you are. We have enough of our own problems without taking in another bunch of disaffected Americans running away from home. We were happy to take draft dodgers, because of your dirty little war. But your present mess is causing us troubles too - so stay there and damn well fix it. Thank you.
- prh
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