Leaving the Country: The Considering vs. Doing Gap
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Last Show with David Cooper. Procrastinate your life away with us. For years, you might have heard this story. Americans packing their bags and moving to Canada after an election. Doesn't matter which election. But I'm here with someone whose data suggests that's largely a myth. Why is the perception of folks migrating from the U.S. to Canada different from the reality? Well, that's what we're going to dig into with Jack Jedwab from the Canadian Studies and Metropolis Institute. Jack, welcome to the show. Thank you very much, David. So you've poured over this data and what have you found?
Why are more Americans considering moving to Canada?
Are Canadians moving to the U.S. more than Americans are moving to Canada right now? What's the actual story of migration here?
Well, by and large, over the past, say, 30 years, more Canadians have moved to the U.S. than the inverse. We don't have up-to-date data for Canadians moving to the U.S. because since 2023, there's sort of been a hold on releasing data from DHS, from Homeland Security, Office of Immigration Statistics, relative to how many people are entering the States and from which countries they're doing so. But prior to 2023... Leaving the pandemic exceptional year aside, more Canadians have been moving to the US to the inverse. Now, having said that, there has been some uptick in Americans moving to Canada, but not major uptick.
We hear about Americans who are like unhappy with the political situation and end up leaving. But I think in practice that doesn't happen as often as Americans think it does. I think Americans investigate it and then they realize immigration is hard. I say that being a Canadian living in the U.S. It's not easy to immigrate to a country like some people expect it is, having never done so themselves.
No, I agree completely. I think there's... And what's created a lot of the buzz lately about Americans moving to Canada has been this amendment to legislation in the country that will make for much greater eligibility for citizenship on the part of Americans if they have deeper ancestral ties beyond, say, first generation. So that presumably is opening up a path to hundreds of thousands of Americans potentially being eligible for Canadian citizenship. But There's a big gap between actually checking your ancestry, which apparently we're seeing some movement in that regard on the part of Americans and actually making the move. Making the move is a bigger decision. And so you're seeing a lot of the stories in the media lately about that amended legislation.
In each of those stories, there's someone being interviewed who doesn't like Donald Trump, right? Who's sort of saying, you know, it's a lot of unpleasant stuff going on in the US. There's that ICE thing going on, which is terrible.
What data challenges exist regarding migration trends?
And Donald Trump's doing this and that. So the stories don't look as much about the expansion of the citizenship opportunities they do about politics in the United States and the sort of uneven impact it's having on how people feel. Now, again, jumping from that, I don't like Donald Trump actually moving. There's a process involved in doing that. There's a lot of decision making involved in doing that.
How does the perception of migration differ from reality?
And so it's not as simple as some people might think.
It's the sort of considering versus doing gap. People contemplate it because they're unhappy. They see the news, they're unhappy. But then actually getting around to it, leaving your community, figuring out immigration, there's a huge gap there is what you're saying.
Yeah, there is. And we've got a lot of rules here. Now, to be fair, if you can get that easy access to citizenship, then you don't have to go through all of our rules to the same degree, right? You don't have to apply for permanent resident status, that sort of family unification. You're not a refugee. But there are all kinds of rules. And we're here in Canada with a selection system that also prioritizes people with certain skills, right? So it's not as though everyone in the U.S. that wishes to come to Canada can do so easily. They can't. They got to go through the same process as everybody else.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–0:38
2
Why are more Americans considering moving to Canada?
0:38–2:38
3
What data challenges exist regarding migration trends?
2:38–2:58
4
How does the perception of migration differ from reality?
2:58–6:05
5
What factors impact Americans' decisions to immigrate?
6:05–7:26
6
What recent legislative changes affect American citizenship in Canada?
7:26–10:05
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from The Last Show with David Cooper
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