A small American town is so desperate for workers that it not only wants migrants to move there, but also has to pay them $15,000 for it.
Cities like New York, Chicago and Denver are struggling to care for the 100,000 migrants who arrive by bus from Texas, while as many as 10,000 cross from Mexico every day.
But Topeka, the capital of Kansas, would like to see some of those buses come their way to join the growing Hispanic community that makes up 17 percent of the population.
The city has an unemployment rate of just 2.9 percent, compared to the national 3.7 percent, and 7,000 open jobs that the city cannot fill from the ranks of its approximately 175,000 residents.
City officials launched the Choose Topeka program in 2019, offering up to $15,000 to anyone moving from outside Shawnee County, with a maximum of $300,000 per year.
Topeka, the capital of Kansas, would like to see some of those buses come their way to join the growing Hispanic community that makes up 17 percent of the population and hosts an annual celebration (pictured) that takes almost a century old.
Topeka Mayor Michael Padilla, a moderate Democrat in a Republican state, said a diverse community would make the city more prosperous
Topeka taxpayers will fund half of the stimulus, and employers will pay the rest.
The city began targeting migrants for the program last year, as thousands of migrants crossed the border after the Hispanic population rose 25 percent in a decade.
But there’s a catch: Only newcomers with jobs are eligible, so undocumented immigrants without permission to work in the U.S. can’t apply.
Topeka Mayor Michael Padilla, a moderate Democrat in a Republican state, said a diverse community would make the city more prosperous.
The city does not have the resources to build migrant shelters, but will accept all newcomers ready to work and contribute to the economy, he said.
The push to attract migrants to the city began under his predecessor Michelle De La Isla, who like Padilla is bilingual and whose parents came from Mexico.
“I have seen how our Latinx and immigrant populations drive innovation and strengthen our community,” she said at the time.
‘It’s incredible to see the city growing as a cultural hub, and with the continued development of initiatives to support Spanish entrepreneurs, students, families, children and even tourists, I’m excited to see what’s to come.’
Choose Topeka is trying to attract migrants using Spanish-language versions of its advertising, and a guide to the city for Spanish speakers.
Efforts to target migrants have so far cost about $50,000, 10 percent of the tourism office’s marketing budget.
Choose Topeka is trying to attract migrants using Spanish-language versions of its ads and a guide to the city for Spanish speakers (photo)
A Facebook post from the group included dozens of comments in Spanish from people in Peru, Venezuela, Guatemala and as far away as the U.S. asking for information
The program attracted major attention in Latin America when it aired on Noticias Telemundo in October.
Since then, the Greater Topeka Partnership, which oversees the program, has received nearly 10,000 resumes from migrants asking for help finding a job and moving there.
A Facebook post from the group included dozens of comments in Spanish from people in Peru, Venezuela, Guatemala and as far away as the U.S. asking for information.
“Hello, what if I live in Guatemala, am a psychologist and have a tourist visa, but I would like to apply to live in Topeka, can I do the paperwork?” someone asked.
However, many of them said it was difficult to find a job without coming to the area first, or asked for help finding a job.
Bob Ross, senior vice president of communications for the Greater Topeka Partnership, said demand has been high.
“Over the past year, we have seen a major increase in interest from first-generation immigrants moving to Topeka,” he told DailyMail.com.
“We have limited details on many of them, we’re hearing anecdotal stories from people who let us know they got jobs at FedEx or UPS, among others.
“We are actively working with an entrepreneur, a Venezuelan restaurant owner, who is trying to open a new location in Topeka. He currently owns a successful restaurant in Cincinnati, Ohio.”
Ross Aid Hispanics made up 37 percent of Topeka public school students and were on track to become the largest demographic group in the school system.
Erik Bovell, a Venezuelan immigrant who moved to Topeka with his wife and two children in 2022 and works as an engineer at the Kansas company Schenck Process, is the poster boy for the program.
“My family loves Topeka now. We’re close to Kansas City for sports, our kids love their school, and everyone here is so welcoming and friendly. We are very happy here,” he said.
Erik Bovell, a Venezuelan immigrant who moved to Topeka with his wife and two children in 2022 and works as an engineer, is the program’s poster boy
A Spanish advertisement for a business starting seminar in Topeka
Bovell regularly gives interviews promoting Choose Topeka, but has lived in another part of Kansas since coming to the U.S. in 2016.
The family originally lived in Seneca, a smaller town in northern Kansas, while he attended Pittsburg State University.
When his employer said he could work remotely and the family wanted to move closer to Kansas City, they were already looking at Topeka before finding out they could get a $10,000 bonus.
Critics of the program, and others who like it elsewhere in the U.S., say situations like theirs highlight the shortcomings of offering monetary incentives to move.
From Choose Topeka’s inception through November 2022, only 70 people actually moved to Topeka as part of the incentive program.
Furthermore, 27 of them – like Bovell – came from elsewhere in Kansas, making them only eligible for a $10,000 bonus.
Remote workers accounted for 26 of the 70 employees, who were also only eligible for $10,000, while the rest worked for local companies and usually earned at least $60,000 a year.
But there’s little data on how many of them were lured in by the incentives, or would move to Topeka anyway and take the free money as a bonus.
Some locals are particularly critical of their tax dollars being given away to often well-paid transplants, while property taxes have risen 123.1 percent since 1997 — 2.5 times the combined rate of population growth and inflation.
The Kansas Policy Institute, a conservative think tank, argued in 2022 that Choose Topeka did not work.
Instead, it argued that the city should use the money to improve services, reduce taxes and maintain the city’s notoriously poor roads – arguing that this would attract new residents without the need to funnel money to them to throw.
This was before Choose Topeka began targeting immigrants, which city officials said would make it more effective.
This mural in Topeka celebrates the Hispanic community, which the city hopes to expand
Similar programs exist in the Tulsa, Oklahoma and Northwest Arkansas Council, along with smaller, more limited programs spread throughout the country.
But Northwest Arkansas is wrapping up its program, saying it worked mostly to grab headlines and put it on the map for Americans looking to leave cities, which was no longer necessary.
Tulsa’s program, unlike Topeka’s, is funded by oil billionaire George Kaiser’s family foundation and does not use public money.
Ross maintained that Topeka’s program was doing well for the city economically.
“We expected the average worker coming in to make $60,000; so far the average salary is $90,000,” he said.
‘We initially expected a sixfold return on our investment; In the first year alone, we calculated a program impact of $3.9 million, which is a 14x return on investment. So there is a real dollar value in doing this.”