The situation in the US right now is not great, particularly for non-citizens. A promised crackdown on so-called “illegal immigrants” by US president Donald Trump has become a violent free-for-all resulting in multiple killings that the government and security forces have insisted were justified, despite sometimes ample evidence to the contrary.
Some countries over the past year have issued travel advisories or cautions for people headed to the US: Canada, for instance, issued a warning in 2025 that anyone with a gender-neutral passport could face difficulty entering the country because of an executive order signed by Trump directing the government to recognize only two “sexes,” male and female.
re the impending gdc 2026 and discussions about safety of entering the US, I am thinking about this graph the CBC posted today about changes in travel between the vancouver and seattle areas
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/…— @moomanibe.bsky.social (@moomanibe.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-01-29T23:10:08.501Z
The survey doesn’t get better on the management and money side. 60% of “non-US industry leaders and investors” said current immigration policies in the US have impacted either their ability or their desire to do business with American companies.
Among US-based professionals at companies with at least 20 employees, 18% said their ability to recruit or retain talent has been impacted by the country’s immigration and gender policies, while 42% said there was no impact and 40% said they were unsure; among companies with at least 100 employees, 21% said they’ve been impacted by current US policies, 38% reported no impact, and 41% were unsure.
Interestingly, the survey dropped the same day GDC Executive Director Mark DeLoura told GamesIndustry that he’s not yet seen an impact on ticket sales for GDC despite such concerns, and encouraged international travellers to attend.
“One of the great strengths of the show is that it’s an international show,” DeLoura said. “I think it’s like 30% of people typically are international attendees. So we definitely want to see them come because it benefits all of us to have this global conversation.”
Gaming Industry#onethird #nonUS #game #developers #cancelled #plans #travel #country #immigration #gender #identity #policies1769758362
