Here in the UK, members of the Facebook group American Women Living in Scotland help one another navigate issues of immigrant life, like how to wrangle a mammogram out of the NHS if you’re under age 50, which grocers are stocking canned pumpkin for Thanksgiving, and tips for driving on the “wrong” side of the road.
There’s even an offshoot group, American Women Who Want Tacos in Scotland, because a decent taco is hard to find in a country where haggis is the national dish and black pepper is considered “spicy.”
After every U.S. election or new season of Outlander, the group’s administrators are bombarded by requests from women living in the United States who want to move overseas. When Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election on Nov. 5, AWLS inquiries ballooned and Google searches for “move abroad” surged across the United States. The same was true eight years ago after Trump’s first win. That 2016 spike in online traffic crashed Canada’s immigration website.
We were living in Canada at that time and now reside outside Edinburgh, Scotland. While I sympathize with the impulse to flee from the devastating effects a second Trump presidency may have on America, visas aren’t that easy to come by, and living abroad poses its own set of challenges. Plus, while it may offer short-term reprieve from the acute anxiety of the moment, emigration does not offer escape.
“Rightwing populism is on the rise around the globe.”
Canada and Europe are confronting the same cultural, political and economic unrest as the United States, and rightwing populism is on the rise around the globe.
Canada
In Canada, immigration once was viewed as a means to bolster the country’s economy. Now it’s being blamed for the housing shortage, the strain on Canada’s vaunted health care system, and the increase in the cost of living. The resentment Canadians feel toward immigrants has fueled movements like the bipartisan Take Back Canada, whose leader, Ethan Duggan, wants to clamp down on immigration, especially from countries that do not conform to “Canadian values.”
In 2017, while some Americans sought to get away from Trump, a segment of Canadians embraced his xenophobic agenda. Conservative candidates favored his “extreme vetting” of immigrants, anti-Muslim flyers peppered college campuses in Toronto, and a gunman killed six Muslim men and injured 19 at a mosque in Quebec City that year.
There has been an uptick in anti-LGBTQ legislation, protests and hate crimes in Canada more recently as well. This past January, thousands turned up in Alberta to hear Tucker Carlson speak at an event hosted by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
A week later, the province banned gender-affirming care for those under 15, a move Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called “the most anti-LGBT policies of anywhere in the country.”
In what has been labeled “American-style politics” for its targeting of trans people for political gain, premieres in New Brunswick and Saskatchewan reversed earlier policies designed to help trans students.
Fundamentalist Christians in Canada also are looking south of the border for inspiration and guidance.
The Ezra Institute, a conservative think tank in Ontario, hosted Christian nationalist Doug Wilson, along with Arizona pastor Jeff Durbin, who favors the death penalty for those who’ve had abortions. Liberty Commission Canada, a conservative Christian advocacy group now focused on opposing LGBTQ rights, same-sex marriage and protection for the environment, seeks to raise $1.3 million to fund Christian candidates up and down the ballot in the upcoming 2025 federal election.
Evangelicals in Canada are a minority, but 73% of them say they plan to vote for Trudeau’s rival conservative Pierre Poilievre. As of now, the Conservatives are the clear favorites to win.
Europe
The same anti-incumbent sentiment that threatens Trudeau and is partially to blame for Kamala Harris’ defeat in the U.S. also is at work in Europe. Here in the UK, the Labour Party, headed by Sir Keir Starmer, won a landslide victory over Conservatives in July. But while this certainly represents a setback for the Tories, it’s not exactly a win for progressives.
Starmer is hardly a leftwing darling, and the Tories have bequeathed Labour a country devastated by 14 years of imposed “austerity.” This 40% cut in government spending, the largest since World War II, was passed in response to the Great Recession in 2008 and has left 147 schools in danger of collapse, put the National Health Service on life support, and stunted economic growth.
Like Canada, the UK also is in the middle of a housing crisis. Britain needs 4.3 million new homes to adequately house those who already are here. Our family lived out of suitcases for six months while looking for a permanent place to rent in Scotland.
On this side of The Pond, Christian nationalism is likewise seeping into the political bloodstream, stoking anti-immigrant and specifically Islamophobic sentiments. Prejudice escalated into violence in August after a teenager stabbed three little girls at a dance class in Southport, England. Reports on social media from a Russian news site falsely claimed the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker. In reality, he was born in Wales to Rwandan immigrants. During a vigil for the slain children, riots erupted outside of the local mosque. The next day, additional riots broke out in Manchester and London, followed by still others in Plymouth, Bristol and Belfast — and instigators threatened many more.
Protections for LGBTQ individuals also fell during the years conservatives were in office. The anti-trans rhetoric of politicians and media personalities like J.K. Rowling has spurred a rise in hate crimes in the UK. Activists hope the Labour government will deliver on its promises to ban conversion therapy in England and Wales and improve access to health care for trans individuals, but as of yet no policies have been enacted.
The Trump effect
Trump’s second term as U.S. president will do nothing to ease these tensions. If anything, his return to the international stage will only enflame them — through his generally combative demeanor, which will embolden extremists, as well as through specific policies, such as costly tariffs, which will exacerbate the economic pressures the far-right exploits.
“Anyone hoping to escape the rightwing extremism engulfing America by immigrating to Canda or the UK will find it difficult to evade.”
Anyone hoping to escape the rightwing extremism engulfing America by immigrating to Canda or the UK will find it difficult to evade. Rather than flight to another country, perhaps the better course is to stay and fight for the future of the United States right where you already are, even though that fight seems especially daunting at the moment.
Consider this:
The vast majority of marginalized people in the United States, the ones who will be the most vulnerable in a second Trump administration, are unable to leave. Fleeing is not an option for them. If they are to be seen, heard and in any way shielded from Trumpian aggression, they will need advocates willing to stand with them.
Incoming “border czar” Tom Homan, who worked on Project 2025, told 60 Minutes he was open to reinstating Trump’s child separation policy. On Fox News Homan said families who self-deport can stay together, implying those who do not may be separated. Public outcry over children in cages is what forced Trump to rescind his zero-tolerance border policy in 2018. With the House and the Senate in his pocket, public pressure and noncompliance will be the only things to hold Trump’s agenda in check before the midterms.
Without people, there will be no resistance. Since Trump’s reelection, the Trevor Project hotline has reported a 700% increase in calls, texts and chats from LGBTQ youth. Supportive organizations need and will need even more volunteers, mentors and donations to care for the uptick of LGBTQ young people in crisis. LGBTQ individuals and their families also need allies to lobby on the local, state and national levels to protect those at risk and ensure their access to affirming health care. The same is true for women who already are stockpiling birth control and the morning after pill.
Historically, dedicated public protest has been the key to challenging governmental abuse, corporate exploitation and societal discrimination in the United States. The rights and freedoms that are now threatened were won through activism. They can only truly recede through indifference.
Now is not the time for moderation or retreat. America desperately needs people who care passionately about protecting the most vulnerable now as much as it ever has.
If you’re thinking about fleeing America, consider: What would Jesus have you do?
Kristen Thomason is a freelance writer with a background in media studies and production. She has worked with national and international religious organizations and for public television. Currently based in Scotland, she has organized worship arts at churches in Metro D.C. and Toronto. In addition to writing for Baptist News Global, Kristen blogs on matters of faith and social justice at viaexmachina.com.
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