A setting in North America would require the entire citizen base to be re-located to a different continent, which is something that I highly doubt would happen. Also, the current theory as to why people speak primarily English in the region of Ukraine (from an IC standpoint) is that the Union re-located populations from parts of the world to another. For example, Americans would have been moved to places like Eastern Europe, where the area is unfamiliar to them, making organized resistance more difficult.
Also, Europe has highway systems and what not lol. They aren't a third world region. But OTa aren't going to be setting up thumpers to keep antlions away from these areas unless they have an outpost set there, as they don't want a freezone for transit that refugees can use to transport supplies and move around. They want these places to be dangerous.