In recent years, company transfers, marriages and chance have brought a fresh wave of Europeans to Cincinnati. And they're thriving.
These 21st Century transplants are highly educated, employed in high-profile jobs and avidly engaged in the community. And they have high expectations. Anne Cappel, Executive Director of the
European-American Chamber of Commerce (EACC), sums up this new generation of expats best. "The typical situation is this: an employee of an international company in Europe gets the chance to advance their career with an international assignment in the US."
So they take it. And although the influx of career savvy Europeans accounts for a modest demographic trend today, the mid-19th Century was a very different story for Europeans arriving on Cincinnati soil.
"From 1835 to 1855 Cincinnati was the fastest growing city in the US," says Dan Hurley, a noted local historian and Director of the
Leadership Cincinnati program. "By 1850 Cincinnati was the sixth largest city in the US. The main thrust behind this came from Europe; specifically German-speaking and Irish immigrants."
While the old wave of European immigrants relied on family ties and cultural solidarity to settle in, Cappel explains that today's European expats build their networks through creative social outings, like the upcoming
EACC Smart Car Auto Rally scheduled for May 15, held by organizations like the EACC.
Gaelle Lecourt, a French sensory research scientist at the Cincinnati-based headquarters for
Givaudan Flavors Corporation, says the EACC helped her connect to the city by giving her a crash course on a baseball.
"I received an email about an EACC outing to a baseball game," Lecourt said. "It was perfect. There were new expatriates as well as Americans who wanted to meet people from other cultures. It was so welcoming."
Through her initial contact with the EACC, her social network grew. Since arriving in 2007, Lecourt has flourished in her new home. In 2009 she served as chair of the EACC's YP Committee, and was promoted to the EACC's Board of Directors in 2010.
In spite of all this activity, she says she still feels at ease compared with the life she lived before.
"In my case, Europe was really crazy," Lecourt says. "It was too much work. But I think everyone can find a nice balance between work and life here."
Alongside the well-worn social grooves made by the EACC and the slower pace, affordable housing and spacious yards sweeten the deal for expats coming from parts of Europe where a sliver space comes at a premium.
Kai Bitter, a German lawyer at
Frost Brown Todd, appreciates this point and relishes what he's gained by moving to Cincinnati.
"Here housing is more affordable than it is in Germany by far," says Bitter, who lives with his pregnant wife and five year old son in a comfortable home on a half-acre. "After getting used to having this kind of space, it's hard to imagine moving back to a condo," he laughs.
After spending his senior year of high school in Bel Air, Maryland, Bitter was inspired to return to the US to do post graduate study at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law, where he met his wife, a Cincinnati native.
Kai and his wife returned to work in Germany for a few years after law school, and then found themselves in the US again in 2007, this time "looking for a house and a yard. After looking at law firms in Michigan and Ohio, I eventually got an offer at Frost Brown Todd in Cincinnati," Bitter says. "Given my wife's ties, we jumped on the offer."
And Bitter says he's been thrilled with this decision ever since. "I love Cincinnati. And it's become so much more international over the past ten years."
While stories like these - company transfers, family ties, easy transitions - are increasingly common, thanks to resources like the EACC, not everyone comes to Cincinnati by such a smooth, well-worn path.
"I ended up in Cincinnati by mistake," says Belgian entrepreneur Jean-Francois Flechet with a smile.
Things didn't get off to such a smooth start for Flechet, who originally came to the US to pursue a PhD in economics at the University of Pennsylvania, before ending up at a market research firm in Cincinnati by chance.
After five years worth of statistical applications and assorted R&D projects, Flechet grew weary of corporate life. Eager to change gears, he began working on a venture with a friend that didn't take off in the end. Having used all his capital to fund the venture, he had little choice but to either go corporate again or try another business idea that needed little to no start-up capital. He opted for the latter.
Luckily, Flechet had a wild card up his sleeve. Having grown up near Liege, Belgium, ground zero for Belgian waffles, he long toyed with the idea of giving waffles a try. So he picked up a 120 pound cast iron waffle maker during a visit to see his parents.
"That's how
Taste of Belgium started," he says.
In the beginning, Flechet took his waffle idea for a trial spin by using his friend Jean Robert de Cavel's restaurant to make dough and selling his goods from the backside of Bryan Madison's
Findlay Market store. After it was clear he was on to something, he began taking steps to open his own shop, which now employs a staff of twenty.
But Flechet admits that things were tough for him in the beginning of his time in Cincinnati. Yet, ten years of ups and downs have now passed. And the spell has been cast.
"I love Cincinnati," Flechet says. "Or I should say that I love Cincinnati now. It took me a long time."
"But many Cincinnatians don't give the city the credit it deserves," he adds. "I often hear there is nothing to do. There are tons of things to do. For a city its size, Cincinnati's art scene is amazing. And
Fountain Square's transformation is incredible."
Like Flechet, many who come with short-term plans are softened by the city's charms over time.
Bitter agrees, "With the quality of life so high, it's understandable that many people who are sent by their companies end up simply choosing to stay."
Photography by Scott Beseler
International West
Anne Cappel
Gaelle Lecourt
Kai Bitter
Jean-Francois Flechet