Survey shows most Fil-Ams reluctant to move back to PH

Fil-Ams move back to the Philippines? Here’s what a Pew Research Center survey found | Photo by Bambi Corro on Unsplash

Returning to the homeland may be a dream for some Filipino Americans, but an analysis shows that most are reluctant to move back for good.

Pew Research Center conducted a multilingual, nationally representative survey of Asian American adults from July 5, 2022 to Jan. 27, 2023.

Respondents composed of 7,006 Asian Americans of Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, and Vietnamese heritage were asked their views on their “ancestral homelands” and the United States.

The survey was conducted “amid the American public’s increasingly negative views of China and rising concern over tensions between mainland China and Taiwan.” And researchers found that a “majority view the US positively and see it as the world’s leading economic power of the next decade.”

Ranking highest among countries in terms of the percentage of favorable views from the respondents is the US at around 78 percent. Following it is Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines, which ranked fifth at around 37 percent

Filipino adults based in the US, in particular, consider many countries in the survey favorably. They have highly positive views of Japan, with 79 percent seeing it favorably and 43 percent seeing it very favorably.

The US comes second, with 76 percent seeing it favorably. Filipino immigrants, Republicans, and those 50 and older tend to have favorable views of the US–with nearly 9 in 10 of each group saying they see the country very or somewhat favorably.

Interestingly, Filipino immigrants are found to have a more favorable view of the Philippines than those born in the US, and like most Asian adults, most Filipinos say they would not move to their ancestral homelands, though interest differs by nativity.

Although Filipino Americans have largely favorable views of the Philippines, some 67 percent of Filipino adults say they would not move to the Philippines if they had the chance, while 31 percent say they would.

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Filipino immigrants were found to be about four times as likely as US-born Filipino adults to say they would move to the Philippines (43 percent vs 10 percent).

Around half of those who could see themselves moving to the Philippines listed a lower cost of living as their main reason for saying so. A third listed proximity to loved ones as an advantage. Other draws mentioned were better support for older people, less racism, and more familiarity with Filipino culture.