Immigrants Please Apply: Rust Belt Cities Need You

Cities and companies in the middle of the country need more immigrants. The workers will have to change their minds about working in NY or LA and consider these areas.    - - Donna Poisl

By: David Koeppel

Arnoldo Muller-Molina, a Costa Rican native with a PhD in artificial intelligence, could have moved his fledgling tech start-up to Silicon Valley or New York City. Instead, he chose St. Louis, Missouri, a city more renowned for its sports teams than a flourishing immigrant population.

Muller-Molina says he didn't want the high cost of establishing himself on either coast and he disdained the intense competition in those communities. He received a $50,000 grant to move his database company simMachines to St. Louis, where he was given free legal assistance, help in obtaining an EB5 investor visa, and free mentoring services. The money and services came from Arch Grants, a global start-up competition based in St. Louis that was founded in part to draw immigrant entrepreneurs to the "Gateway City."
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