"You're homesick and there's no comfort nearby? You want to decorate your new apartment with memories from home but don't have any ideas? You're planning to eventually return to Saxony-Anhalt but don't where to start? The homeland care package can help!"

Those sentimental words may smack of cheap marketing copy, but the project behind them -- and behind the Web site on which the questions are posted -- are more than just sappy kitsch. Eastern German states such as Saxony-Anhalt, after all, have seen a dramatic number of youth flee high unemployment for better prospects in the west since the 1990s. Now, with eastern German cities rapidly emptying out, local authorities are hoping to encourage young eastern Germans who have headed west for work to return home -- eventually.

The new project, presented by German Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee, who is responsible for the ongoing reconstruction of former East Germany, on Monday in Magdeburg. The site for the project's kick-off was auspicious. The capital of the eastern state Saxony-Anhalt has shrunk by fully 60,000 residents since German reunification in October 1990. Now, though, the care package project together with a new travel agency specializing in helping easterners return home and a Web site called "Contact Eastern Germany" are intended to strengthen the bonds between the émigrés and the home they left behind.

"If a connection to a region remains, there is a chance of return," Tiefensee said in unveiling the project, which has the stated goal of "nurturing homesickness." The care packages contain such items as tickets to local events, a pack of playing cards, crackers and cookies from the region and other products popular in eastern Germany.

The project may seem rather odd considering the economic problems affecting the region. Unemployment in the so-called "new states" -- the states of former East Germany -- has for years remained stubbornly high and is currently around a fifth of the workforce remains jobless. Millions of young people have fled the region as a result, meaning a number of towns and small cities in the region have become virtual retirement homes with very few young people on the streets and steadily declining birth rates. A project is currently under way to demolish over 1 million apartments across eastern Germany.

The region's officials are understandably concerned for its future. Ironically, one of the largest concerns is that companies located in eastern Germany may soon have difficulties finding qualified employees. With so many young people leaving, there will be nobody left to replace the generation currently heading towards retirement. The people behind the care-package project hope perhaps easterners will return once those jobs open up.