{"id":139728,"date":"2025-01-14T12:26:10","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T16:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=139728"},"modified":"2025-01-15T12:27:59","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T16:27:59","slug":"tulsa-relocation-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/tulsa-relocation-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Relocation Program: A City Saver?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is Tulsa, Oklahoma’s relocation program? Could it be a solution to the US’s brain drain problem? What challenges do cities face managing such initiatives?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As cities across the United States lose talented workers to coastal hubs, Tulsa, Oklahoma is testing a solution with promising early results: paying remote workers $10,000 to relocate. After initial promise, other cities around the US are starting to follow Tulsa’s example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep reading to learn about Tulsa’s relocation program and what it could mean for the city, and others like it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Tulsa Is Paying Workers to Relocate <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the United States, brain drain has traditionally meant the loss of skilled workers from smaller cities <\/strong>and regions to major coastal hubs. However, remote work offers a potential solution to this problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For context, brain drain refers to the migration of educated and skilled individuals<\/a> from one country or region to another in search of better opportunities, resulting in a loss of human capital that can impede economic growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tulsa, Oklahoma exemplifies both the challenge of brain drain and potential of remote work to address it. From 2015 to 2019, the city lost roughly 1,000 college-educated people annually<\/a>, while those moving to Oklahoma were mostly over 45 and earned below the state\u2019s average income. The rise of remote work offered a new possibility to reverse this trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Details of Tulsa’s Experiment<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Tulsa\u2019s relocation program for reversing brain drain emerged from an unexpected source: Teach for America<\/a>. City officials noticed that some teachers who moved to Tulsa for the program\u2019s two-year commitment chose to stay permanently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acting on this insight, in 2019 the city launched <\/strong>Tulsa Remote<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>a program that offers $10,000 to workers willing to relocate and stay in Tulsa for at least a year. The initiative selects applicants who show interest not just in the financial incentive<\/a> but in community engagement<\/a> through volunteering or entrepreneurship. It now brings in 30 to 70 new workers each month<\/a>, having attracted 3,300 total since its inception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recent a<\/a>n<\/a>alysis<\/a> of Tulsa Remote by researchers from Harvard and other universities suggests the initiative is countering the city\u2019s brain drain problem:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n