Expat, Immigrant, Missionary, Guest
On building relationships with local communities
The Polis Labs team was fortunate enough to attend the Infinita Crypto Cities Summit at Próspera earlier this month. Throughout the week, we had an opportunity to discuss "startup societies" encompassing a diverse range of initiatives, from network states and pop-up cities to online communities and charter cities. These endeavors seek to experiment with new policy ideas, fostering a climate where innovative governance, economics, and biotech research can flourish.
Side note: The Polis Labs team had a phenomenal experience at the Infinita Forever Pop-up City, a district hosted by Próspera in Roatán, Honduras, that focuses on research and innovation in the health and longevity spheres.
A consistent theme in the presentations at the summit and in our conversations was the need to ensure these new communities can integrate into existing ones without causing harm. There was general recognition that new startup societies are not established on terra incognito. Instead, they will enter an area inhabited by deeply rooted communities with their own histories, cultures, economies, and social structures.
To that end, and in keeping with the Polis Labs mission of defeating Moloch, we strongly believe that any startup society must recognize this reality and actively seek to align incentives with the local population. By fostering mutual benefit rather than zero-sum competition, new startup societies can prevent unnecessary conflict and create sustainable, cooperative structures.
Moreover, in building a framework for local interaction, it is crucial to understand how startup society members will fit within the new country or jurisdiction. An essential first step is to identify what type of foreign presence a startup society will embody and the broader implications this will have towards building a thoughtful and long-term integration strategy that minimizes negative externalities and builds positive-sum relationships with the local community.
Understanding Foreign Presence: Who Are You to the Local Community
Foreigners in a host country take on different roles, each with its own pros, cons, and responsibilities. Understanding these roles can help a startup society anticipate how its presence will be perceived and how to engage ethically and productively with the local population. Below is a brief outline of four types of foreigners likely to be attracted to a startup society.
1. The Expatriate (Expat)
An expatriate is a person who temporarily or permanently resides in a foreign country, usually for work, business, or diplomatic assignments. Expats often bring high skills and investments, which can benefit the local economy. They can contribute to job creation by establishing businesses or working for multinational corporations that employ locals. Expats may also introduce new business practices, education systems, and global perspectives, leading to beneficial cultural exchange with the host country.
However, expats can also contribute to economic and social inequality by receiving higher salaries than locals, distorting local economies, and making local living expenses unaffordable. Many expats live in wealthy enclaves and interact mainly with their communities, limiting integration and creating cultural barriers. This, combined with the economic effects on the local population, can lead to resentment.
Some best practices for better integration include learning the local language and customs, engaging with local communities rather than forming exclusive expat circles, respecting cultural norms, and supporting local businesses instead of relying on imports.
2. The Immigrant
An immigrant is a person who moves to a foreign country intending to reside there permanently or for an extended period. Immigrants typically relocate for economic opportunities, education, family reunification, or escaping conflict and persecution. Unlike expats, who often maintain a strong connection to their home country and may intend to return, immigrants integrate into the new society and seek citizenship or long-term residency.
Immigrants may struggle with cultural and legal differences, as many countries have strict social norms, bureaucratic complexities, and different work permit systems. Unlike expats, who often live in temporary bubbles with a clear return plan, an immigrant must navigate deep integration into the host society, which may involve challenges such as language barriers, different legal rights for foreigners, and social acceptance. In some regions, immigrants may be viewed with suspicion due to historical influences, economic disparities, or political tensions.
Another major hurdle is employment and economic stability. While some immigrants arrive with jobs lined up, those who seek independent employment or entrepreneurship may encounter restrictive business regulations, lack of access to financial institutions, and biases in hiring processes.
Social integration can also be difficult. Many find building close friendships with locals challenging, as relationships may be prefaced on long-term trust rather than perfunctory networking.
Ideally, for successful integration, immigrants would learn the local language and gain a deep understanding of cultural norms. Respect for local traditions and active participation in the broader community—not just expat circles—are key to long-term success.
3. The Missionary
A missionary moves to another country for religious, political, or economic work, often intending to spread a faith, ideology, or specific economic model. Missionaries can provide valuable investment and development to the host community, especially in healthcare, education, and infrastructure.
However, missionaries can potentially cause harm when they impose their beliefs aggressively and can easily be perceived as neo-colonial. Some missionary-led aid programs, for example, create long-term dependence on external support instead of promoting self-sufficiency within the beneficiary community. Additionally, missionaries may be perceived as intrusive, especially in regions with strong existing cultural or religious traditions. Political and economic missionaries, such as those promoting specific governance models or market-driven economic systems, may face similar resistance if they undermine local structures or disregard indigenous ways of managing society and commerce.
To ensure ethical engagement, missionaries should focus on collaborative development rather than imposing change, learn the local language and cultural practices, work alongside local leaders instead of replacing them, and prioritize long-term development efforts over short-term humanitarian or charitable aid. Economic and political missionaries should engage with local governance structures to ensure their initiatives are welcomed rather than seen as foreign intervention.
4. The Guest (Tourist, Student, Digital Nomad, etc.)
A guest is a foreigner who visits a country temporarily for tourism, study, business, or short-term work. Tourists and short-term visitors boost local economies by supporting hotels, restaurants, cultural sites, and businesses. They also encourage global connections and cultural exchange, while international students contribute to the education sector and bring innovation.
However, guests can also cause disruptions. Overtourism can lead to environmental damage, cultural exploitation, and rising living costs for locals. Tourists who ignore local customs can cause cultural tension, and since guests are temporary residents, they often do not invest in long-term community development.
Digital nomads, in particular, have found themselves at the center of local ire in several places where large numbers of them gathered during the COVID-19 pandemic. As one Lisbon native explained in a recent Time Out article about the digital nomad phenomenon:
“These are people that come to make the best of a place while it still makes sense for them, then move on to another place.
‘And when they leave there's a huge trail of destruction that gets left behind. And the locals are the ones that have to deal with that. Because we are not going anywhere. We were here before, we were here during the time that everything became more expensive, and we will be here after this phenomenon dies down.'
For respectful engagement, guests should respect local laws (e.g., not engage in poorly regulated or illegal subletting of housing), local traditions, and social norms while supporting local businesses over global chains. Learning the history of the area and some basic phrases in the local language also shows respect for the local population and helps minimize harm.
Case Study: Unintentional Harm Through Wage Distortion
Since we’ve examined a few integration challenges specific to each type of foreigner, let’s look at a more generalized example of unintentional harm to a local community that a startup society could cause.
One of the most common yet unintended consequences of a foreign presence is wage distortion — where foreigners overpay local workers, unintentionally disrupting the local economy.
How Foreigners Drive Wage Inflation in Service & Domestic Work
Wealthy expats, diplomats, and foreign professionals often pay significantly higher wages to attract workers, creating a dual-wage economy where locals working for foreign employers earn much more than those working for fellow locals. This leads to labor shortages in traditional sectors, as workers prioritize foreign jobs over domestic employment. Even relatively wealthy locals struggle to hire domestic workers because they cannot match expat-level wages. This could create an artificial "foreigners' market" for labor, where local businesses lose workers to the higher-paying expatriate economy. Even foreigners’ practice of overtipping can exacerbate this issue.
Consequences for the Local Community
Wage inflation can distort local service pricing, making everyday necessities like domestic help, taxis, and restaurant meals unaffordable for middle-class locals. Price expectations rise, disproportionately impacting lower-income residents. Locals who do not work for foreigners may feel left behind, potentially leading to resentment and community divisions.
Tips to Avoid Wage Distortion
The primary solution is to research local wage standards and respect existing wage norms, following local government regulations and guidelines such as minimum wage, etc. Excessive over-tipping or overpaying should be avoided or at least done thoughtfully, ensuring that it does not create an unsustainable cycle of inflated wages.
Final Thoughts: A Startup Society Must Integrate, Not Isolate
It is understandable that, caught up in the monumental task of negotiating agreements at a national level for the establishment of a special economic zone (SEZ), charter city, or other specialized jurisdiction, a startup society’s founders may overlook or insufficiently address the short- and long-term effects on the local population.
However, without proper alignment of incentives with the local community, startup societies risk falling into the same type of Moloch Traps they seek to escape. This is why we strongly believe that prioritizing integration by respecting and working alongside the local population is the best path for a startup society to thrive and grow in a sustainable and responsible manner.
We intend to study this topic in greater detail to provide guidance to startup societies on best practices for local integration. We will also explore the possibility of entirely new societies emerging post-integration, potentially incorporating elements of the startup society and indigenous culture. Our aim is to identify optimal integration solutions that balance immersion with each startup community’s unique mission and goals.