As the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown restrictions ravaged China, searches on the country’s leading internet search engine for “conditions to immigrate to Canada” skyrocketed by a whopping 28-fold. On April 3, WeChat reported a massive surge of Chinese citizens seeking information about “immigration,” with the word being searched 50 million times in one day and video views increasing by 14 times. This follows public protests against China’s zero-COVID policies that made many leave their home country for Canada or other Western countries.
