The decision to work abroad as an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) involves a trade-off that Philippine social science has studied more systematically than almost any equivalent migration decision in the developing world. A 2024 peer-reviewed study published in the Asian Journal of Education and Social Studies followed 50 OFW parents working in Dubai and their children aged 8 to 18 remaining in the Philippines. OFW parents showed mean depression scores of 16.3 and mean anxiety scores of 18.1 on validated clinical scales, significantly above normative thresholds; qualitative responses indicated recurring parental regret over missing developmental milestones and family events. The positive correlation between length of separation and psychological distress suggests that regret intensifies rather than fades over time for a substantial minority, consistent with Gilovich and Medvec’s finding that action regrets become more salient at longer time horizons.
The non-migration side carries its own documented costs. Philippine Statistics Authority data show that 1.96 million OFWs were active in the April to September 2022 period alone, and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas figures put personal remittances at approximately 9.3 percent of Philippine GDP in 2023. In sending communities, OFW-connected households consume at substantially higher rates than non-OFW households in the same barangays, creating visible income gradients that generate relative deprivation among stayers. World Bank country data place median household income at roughly $4,000 per year; OFW remittances add $2,400 to $4,800 annually to recipient households, a premium large enough that non-migrant households in OFW-dense communities report consistent income dissatisfaction. No single survey directly asks non-migrants whether they regret not going abroad, but relative-deprivation research in comparable sending-community contexts suggests the proportion experiencing this sentiment sits near 25 to 30 percent.
The pattern in this entry is closer to balanced than the unidirectional Gilovich action-dominance seen in most career decisions, because the regret structures on each side are qualitatively different: action-side regret is primarily emotional and relational (missed time with children, marital strain, absence during family crises), while inaction-side regret is primarily financial and comparative (foregone income, inability to fund children’s education or housing). Family composition is the strongest moderator: OFWs without young dependent children report substantially lower separation distress, and the 38 percent distress rate from the Dubai study likely overstates the rate for the broader OFW population. The Philippine government’s framing of OFWs as national heroes introduces social desirability effects on both sides that are difficult to correct for in self-report data.