I don't know if there's much you can do to induce rural folks to move to urban areas. The brightest kids from rural areas go to colleges, get job offers in the

I don't know if there's much you can do to induce rural folks to move to urban areas. The brightest kids from rural areas go to colleges, get job offers in the Metro, and move. The ones left behind are either those who couldn't get a job offer, go to college or are too old. What would you tell these people to do? There just isn't an easy solution other than an intensive retraining in relevant skills. Or aggressively searching for jobs tailored to the skills they possess. (e.g. I remember reading about JetBlue using suburban stay at home women for handling customer support or something). Also people who are used to their slow-paced, conservative and rural way of life will probably be more than a little shocked by city culture.