Donald Trump’s sweeping victory in the US presidential election last week has been met with mixed reactions around the world.
In an interesting turn of events, search engine Google has seen a huge increase in web searches in India for ‘legal immigration’, ‘H1B visa’ and ‘US birth citizenship’ following Donald Trump’s mega victory in the United States (US) presidential election. .
According to data from Google’s Trends section, searches around immigration and H1B visas spiked on Nov. 6, when the Republican candidate took a significant lead over his opponent, Kamala Harris.
In India, one of the biggest concerns after Trump’s victory is the potential impact on immigration to the US, after the president-elect drummed up anti-immigration rhetoric ahead of the elections.
What did Indians discover the most?
Moments after Trump emerged as the winner- a month ago Indians searched for ‘legal immigration’ in large numbers on Alphabet’s search engine with virtually no search interest. People from Punjab led the search queries on Google, followed by people from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Kerala.
Phrases like ‘Trump legal immigration’, ‘legal immigration under Trump’ and ‘Stephen Miller’ have also been searched by people likely to be upset by the start of Trump’s second innings as president.
The president-elect named Miller, known for his tough stance on immigration, as deputy chief of staff. He played a central role in many policy decisions, especially on immigration. It is expected that rejections for visas such as the H1B – which many skilled Indians rely on to work in the US – could increase.
The search engine also saw a huge spike in searches related to H1B visas on November 6. The phrase was searched the most by people living in Telangana, followed by Chandigarh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. These people also searched for ‘Donald Trump H1B Visa’ and ‘US Birth Citizenship’.
What did Americans discover most?
On the other hand, people in Democratic-leaning states like Vermont and Minnesota highly searched for ways to move to Canada, Scotland, Ireland, which points to the likelihood of users in the US moving to another country. However, in Republican-leaning states like Mississippi and Alabama, people searched for birth control options in their states, according to a Google Trends listing, the report said.
According to a report by The National, trends on Google showed a huge increase in searches from the US about how to get away from the country. It said that about 76% of the searches were done in the US. They also searched for phrases like ‘easiest countries to move to,’ ‘how to move to Ireland from the US’ and ‘how to move to New Zealand from the US.’
According to the report, most of the searches were from the states of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Oregon, Colorado, Washington, Tennessee and Minnesota.
The US has explored abortion and transgender/same-sex rights in Canada, Scotland and other countries. It is expected that Trump could potentially clampdown on abortion, and increase the clampdown on birth control measures.
US Presidential Election 2024
Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States on Wednesday, after a Wisconsin win put him over the 270 electoral vote line needed for the presidency. Trump won the key swing states of Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, Michigan and North Carolina. Trump’s Republican Party also gained control of both houses of the US Congress, giving him additional powers to take action on trade and other issues.
Since then, Trump has been handing top roles to a mix of political allies, firebrands and somewhat traditional figures for his future White House. Vice President Kamala Harris, following her election win over Trump, has been tapped for cabinet and other high-ranking administration positions every day.