COLUMBUS, Ohio — Their love story started 5,000 miles away from their Upper Arlington apartment – with a match on Tinder.

“I like guys like Mikhail,” Teresa Temu said. “He wrote in his profile, ‘Hey, I’m a scientist from southern Russia.’”

She was a filmmaker. He was a scientist. On paper, both were well paid. But as their relationship became more serious, the couple could only afford to rent a single room in Moscow.

“There was no prospect in changing our life, and we imagined we will live in this same or similar room for retirement,” Mikhail Tarasov said. “Of course, I was looking for some other opportunities.”

That opportunity came in 2020, when Tarasov was hired as a scientist at The Ohio State University. He and Temu are among more than 60,000 new Americans who have moved to centra

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