Moving to Chicago

Chicago at first glance seems like an unlikely expat destination; tucked between the American heartland and Lake Michigan, foreigners would seem more inclined to stop at the coastal cities like Boston and New York. Yet increasingly many bypass America's more international cities and find a vibrant, multicultural and certainly business-oriented environment in the said heart of the USA.

 

Chicago is America's third largest city but has throughout American history been known as the 'other' big city after New York, which soaks up most of the limelight. A bit of that underdog spirit has done well for Chicago, which is ever proving to the world just how important a metropolis it really is. This manifests itself in a number of ways, including world-class museums, towering skyscrapers, beautiful parks and a huge glistening business district. Perhaps most importantly, the city keeps investing in itself, continuously improving infrastructure, trying to fix its educational system, providing some of the nation's top higher educational universities and, as expats will notice, courting the world's largest companies to relocate their headquarters.

While the cost of living in Chicago is considerably higher than the national average, it is lower than many other American cities such as New York. Yet for all these advantages, Chicago has the entrenched problems that plague most American cities. Public education can be dismal and high crime rates force families away from the city. Chicago is at America's heart, and its industrial whir powers the country and now much of the world's economy.