– When people fantasize about the United States, they make the United States seem like a free city. New York, the land of opportunity. California, the land of opportunity. – No, they are not. news is visiting a small studio flat, with single mother Yesse San Miguel. On her lap is her eight-month-old son Wyatt. He throws himself back and forth like on a rocking horse. San Miguel and the son slept in the same room. In addition, she has a home office from the chair they are sitting in. Photo: Ismail Burak Akkan / news – When I had him in my belly, I sat a lot in that rocking chair there. I think the movement makes him feel safe, says the mother. It is a short way to her parents’ home in the village of Bethlehem, which is located in Pennsylvania. But San Miguel has had enough of the entire United States. She wants to go to the country where her mother is a citizen: Colombia, and the city of Medellín. – I’m not saying that other countries are better, because I don’t know that. I haven’t been to many, she says. But she has been to her mother’s hometown. She likes that the weather is tropical, that the people are creative and “edgy”. She thinks she knows where it is safe and where it is dangerous. – If I got $50,000 in my hand right now, I would have traveled anywhere tomorrow. Photo: Ismail Burak Akkan / news Photo: ISMAIL BURAK AKKAN / news Many examine emigration A solid majority of Americans who voted in the election believe that Donald Trump will make their lives better. For those who voted for the challenger Kamala Harris, the case is different. At 8 p.m. on election day, when a Trump comeback looked likely, Google Trends says that there was a fourfold increase in people searching: “How can one move to Canada?” On Facebook groups in support of the Democrats, there were many who sought support the morning after the election. “How could this happen,” asks a woman in Harris, Pennsylvania. Another: “How do I talk to my child about this?” Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP When the victory was a fact, a website that helps Americans move out of the country received over 30,000 new visitors in just a few hours. The traffic on the website, Expatsi, is still five times what is usual, writes spokesperson Brett Andrews in an e-mail to news. – Many people in the USA are terrified of a new presidential term with Trump, he says. – An increasing number of Americans want to leave the country, but have little idea where they can go. These have contacted expats and asked for help, according to Andrews Transpersons who do not know if they will have access to gender-affirming treatment in the future Pensioners who are afraid that they will have to go back to work, because of Trump’s economic policy Women who are afraid of losing access on abortion Parents who are afraid of school shootings, and want their children to get their education in another country A five-year plan Back in “small-town Pennsylvania”, little Wyatt has started to creak. He takes his mother into the kitchen to heat a bottle of milk substitute. Photo: Ismail Burak Akkan / news Photo: ISMAIL BURAK AKKAN / news The water in the tap is so hard that it creates limescale rings in the kitchen sink. Since Wyatt was born, San Miguel has washed dishes and cooked with bottled water. – Do you have a time when you want to leave the USA, we ask. – Before he starts school. Then he was five years old, and now he is eight months old. – That is potentially an entire presidential term. Four years. – What Trump is going to do with this country will not be fixed in the presidential term after him. There will be a few more. Photo: Ismail Burak Akkan / news Photo: ISMAIL BURAK AKKAN / news San Miguel says she is frightened by the way Trump’s supporters talk. “As if they are in a cult,” she says. – I feel that Trump is going to send this country into a new civil war. That’s how it feels already. – For me, Trump represents all the negative things about the United States. The greedy, the power hungry, the elitist, the white privilege. Depending on the food center She has actually had the plan to leave since the first time he became president. Then it didn’t work. She couldn’t afford it. When the bills are paid, she has to go to the food center today so that she and Wyatt will have enough to eat. Higher prices have made everything worse, she says. This year, however, she has more hope than last time. The job has promised a substantial bonus soon, she says. Most of it goes to an exit fund. Photo: Ismail Burak Akkan / news Photo: ISMAIL BURAK AKKAN / news – I think about it all the time. I do not want my son to grow up in a society where women do not have rights and are not treated equally. She lifts Wyatt up. The tiny human dangles his arms and smiles. Then he bit her arm, and the moment was over. – He is going to be a good man. It will take time, and he will have to learn how. – But he will grow into it. Photo: Ismail Burak Akkan / news Photo: ISMAIL BURAK AKKAN / news – Fear for my safety and lifestyle It is not just out in the American districts that minority communities feel fear. In Washington DC we meet John Gann, who is also a Democrat. He lives in a one-room flat with his husband and dog, in the center of the city. – As a gay man, as a Jewish man, liberal, I fear for my safety and my lifestyle, says Gann. Gann says that he had expected that a figure like Trump would become president one day. But he didn’t think it would happen in his lifetime. Photo: Håvard Blekastad Almås / news In the days after the presidential election, he has made 3D models to distract himself from what is happening. – The Republican Party wants to abolish gays’ rights. My marriage is annulled. The other protections that enable me to live freely will be taken away. – Do you think he will actually do it? – Yes, I think so. He was born and raised in DC. They have jobs here, elderly parents, things they have committed to. But now they are considering moving. If they move, it will be to start a new life in the long term, says Gann. Norway is not on the wish list. It will be too cold and dark. Photo: Håvard Blekastad Almås / news – We have talked about it before, and looked at possibilities. But now I am seriously considering finding a place to move to, either permanently or as a temporary escape. What they haven’t decided on yet. – Israel was our first choice, but the conflict there is certainly not a good idea. Portugal is high on the list, as it is quite easy to get a visa. But first, Trump must get a chance. – I give him six months.
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– Would have traveled anywhere – Urix
