The correspondence between migration intentions and migration behavior: Data from the 1970 cohort of Filipino graduate students in the united states

Data from a longitudinal study of Filipinos who were in graduate school in the U.S. in 1970 were analyzed to investigate why some students who as graduate students intended to return to the Philippines did return, while others failed to do so. There were no differences between the groups in terms of their migration-related attitudes and motivations as students, or in terms of their perceptions as students of relative economic and career opportunities in the Philippines and the U.S. Instead it was found that members of the two groups underwent different social experiences in the U.S. that caused the noncorresponders to change their original plans regarding return home. Youth, openness to American culture, and freedom to remain in the U.S. following the period of study were the primary antecedents of the change sequence.This research was supported by funds from Contract SCIRP-07031274-11 with the Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy, and Grant HD-11938 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. An earlier version of this paper was read at the Annual Meeting of the Western Psychological Association, Honolulu, Hawaii, May 1980.