On the busy, buzzing lanes of Interstate 10 in the westernmost reaches of Texas, sure enough there come cars headed east bearing plates with the red word across the top: California. But there are plenty of cars bearing black and white Texas plates bound the other way — for California.
For at least 15 years, it has become nearly cliché that Californians are moving to Texas, where jobs abound and the price of housing is far cheaper. But nearly unnoticed is the traffic that has long headed the other way from the Lone Star State to the Golden State, where between 35,000 and 40,000 Texans move annually regardless of economic conditions.
Indeed, if Texas expats who arrived in California since 2000 had their own city it would be close to the size of San Jose — about a million people. But the Texodus to California bears a sharp distinction: While Californians headed east are drawn in by the promise of affordable suburban tract homes, many of the Texans bound in the other direction are recent college graduates seeking a fresh start to their young careers and lives. California continually attracts talents — and drains brains — from Texas.
