The $5,000 relocation check that is luring city workers to nowhere

A 27-year-old analyst got paid $5,000 to move to a place he had never heard of, and he is not the only one. Relocation programs across the US and Europe are offering cash, tax breaks, and even free housing to remote workers who leave expensive cities for smaller communities. The pitch is simple: keep your big-city salary, trade it for a cheaper mortgage, and let the town collect your income tax and your energy at the local coffee shop. For the worker, the check is real money for a move they were already considering. For the town, it is a bet that one remote worker can do what decades of industrial recruitment could not: bring back young, high-earning residents.