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Over the years about 20% of our guests have been newcomers to Canada who stay with us for a few weeks while they get themselves settled in the Vancouver area. Some already have a job, but their housing isn’t ready… some need to look for housing, some need to find a job and find housing. We’re like a launch pad for people from all over the world. I expect we’ll be doing more of this now that local government has imposed a 30-day minimum on short-term rentals (unless it’s a shared kitchen, which ours isn’t.)
Most of our guests are from Asia or the middle east or Mexico – but we have had a couple who came from the USA but weren’t American citizens. (High-tech workers who sensed that – as foreign nationals – the USA was getting less friendly to “foreigners.”)
If Press reports are to be believed some Americans who would never have imagined themselves leaving America are now planning to do so in light of pending changes to the country. Immigrating to Canada is not like moving from Oklahoma to Vermont – you have to go through a complex process to apply for legal residency. If you’re an obstetrician it’s probably easy to get legal, if you’re a janitor, not so much.
As a Canadian with roots in Colonial Virginia (my Tennessee granny married a Canadian) I have lots of second cousins in the USA, I can understand why many Americans would be afraid of what is about to happen – especially Americans who have read history books. I would like to make a special discount offer to Americans who are coming to Canada – but I’m afraid Airbnb might see that as discrimination against other nationalities.
If any of the hosts on this forum knows someone who might feel at risk after America turns the page next year – a librarian who stood up to book banners, an ob-gyn nurse, a gay school teacher etc – who plans on leaving… we could quietly give them a bit of a “special offer” deal in recognition of their situation. If you want to follow up on this, let me know with a message on this forum.
I’m not offering this because we need the business: we haven had an empty night (except for cleaning downtime) for years, and right now we’re booked solid until the end of next summer except for one block next spring… but I would like to contribute to helping out people with the courage to pull up roots and make this kind of break with almost everything that matters in their day-to-day lives.
Janitors likely don’t have the financial means to pick up and move to another country anyway. The Americans who will seriously try to emigrate elsewhere will be people of some means, or those who are single or childless and don’t have a whole family to upend.
I have an originally American friend in Canada who ended up there because his parents, both doctors, picked up and moved with their 2 draft age sons at the beginning of the Vietnam war.
That’s how I ended up Canadian, too-I married a draft dodger I met overseas and he couldn’t go back to the US- we immigrated to Canada.
Good on you for offering this- while lots of people said they would leave in 2016, few did. But this time around, a lot more people seem to be making serious plans to do so. Especially those who have dual US/other countries citizenship or could easily get it because one of their parents is or was a citizen there.
Janitors likely don’t have the financial means to pick up and move to another country anyway.
The couple next door to me: he was a unionized janitor, she a unionized aalab tech. They bought their house years ago on those two salaries, and now the house has well more than $1 million equity
When I lived out west I knew a farmer couple that immigrated to Canada. It was a long and complicated process. That was 30 years ago and I’ll bet things haven’t gotten easier.
I’d leave this country if I were a little younger with more money, instead I’ve moved from one coast to the other, lived in 4 different places in 10 years.
Canada might seem like an obvious choice for many but ironically, moving closer to the home of fascism also looks attractive - and at $1a house a bit cheaper too.
These schemes have been going on for a while now in various parts of Italy and as most of the properties need remediation it has apparently spawned a dearth of quality, local builders to carry out the works.
So if you don’t fancy the prospects of life under Trump, work in construction, got a dollar and know where Sardinia is then this could be for you.
I don’t know the first thing about Sardinia or its politics but I do know that the grass often looks greener so it would probably be good to read up a bit of history first and check out prevailing Sardinian political sentiments lest you end up out of the frying pan and into the fire (except in a different language).
Well, Italy has a right-wing govt., too.
Probably not as insane as what’s up next for the US, though.
Mexico makes it pretty easy to immigrate, but there are financial requirements that one has to meet to get residency- proof that you can support yourself.
Portugal is another place that’s mentioned high on the list of places there are a lot of ex-pats.
The thing is, for Americans, Canada and Mexico are attractive choices if one will still have strong ties to the US- i.e. kids and grandkids and other close family members, because either the ex-pat or their families in the US can hop on a plane and be in the other place in a matter of a few hours.
I am a dual citizen - American and Italian. I truly love Italy and there are places to find affordable housing. However, #1 Sardinia is an island and #2 Italy is well-known for its awesome bureaucracy. And not in a good way. LOL
On the other hand, if someone is willing to find extraordinary patience, AND learn the Italian language ….
Seriously, “La dolce vita” has a flip side. BUT, there are many AMAZING things about Italy.
Very country is seems, right now, has a hard-right population.
I’m the kind of person who might be targeted by a neofascist regime but I’m also the kind who will stay and fight. Thanks for your kind offer, though, and if I hear of anyone in the situation you describe, I’ll ping you.
This “hard-right” feeling is a new vawe in Europe now, and it’s not at all 100% natural, even if Italy is known as a mother of it… Georgia, Germany and now Romania can confirm it… There are heavy underground operations in progress. Playing and pushing the emotional points of people is the new sport of a well-known nation aspiring to regain it’s lost glory…
