Confidence, not feeling, is what determines whether overseas Filipino workers come home. That is the central finding of a Boston Consulting Group report that frames the return decision around whether the country can offer stability rather than whether workers are emotionally prepared to leave their lives abroad.
The report, released Thursday, June 18, drew from a February 2026 survey of 1,337 OFWs based in the United States, Asia, the Middle East and the United Kingdom. BCG set out to map the feelings Filipino workers hold about life overseas and how those feelings shape any intention to go back.
What emerged was a mix of contradictory emotions. While 47% of respondents described themselves as content with their lives abroad, 43% said they miss home, a pairing BCG pointed to as evidence that the decision to return resists clean logic. “This emotional texture matters because return is not a purely rational calculation. It is also a feeling about home, and about whether the Philippines can hold what the OFW has become,” the report said.
That ambivalence shows up in the numbers on intent. A 56% majority have not made up their minds about returning, and only one in five expressed firm certainty that they would. Among those leaning toward coming back, 21% said they were certain and 14% said they probably would.
Even committed returnees tend to stay put. The report found that 81% are holding out until they hit a financial or savings target, while 52% are waiting for a child to finish school. For those likely to return, the hesitations cluster around employment and security: 60% worry about finding work, 58% point to the risk of family emergencies or financial crises, 56% cite concerns over safety or their future at home, and 51% believe better offers exist abroad. “Taken together, these are not the concerns of people waiting to feel emotionally ready. They are the concerns of people waiting for a Philippines that is ready for them,” the report said.
The decision to leave in the first place was rarely a first choice. Only 17% of workers, roughly one in six, were sure about going abroad. Before departing, 32% had weighed staying in the same job, 27% had thought about opening a small business, 19% had searched for work in another province or city, and 18% had looked closer to home. “Migration becomes the path often only when the options at home feel too slow, too limited, or too uncertain,” the report said.
Money drives most of these moves. Salary was the leading factor for 76% of those leaving, matching the 57% who named building a large savings fund as their main aspiration. The forces pushing Filipinos out, BCG found, are 69% chasing higher income and one in three citing the absence of local jobs.
The scale of the phenomenon is substantial. One in 14 Filipino families includes an OFW, and Philippine Statistics Authority figures cited in the report counted 2.19 million OFWs in 2024, a five-year high. BCG noted that if those workers formed a single province, it would be the eighth most populated in the country.
What holds many back, the report concluded, is not the pull of home but the fear of forfeiting what they have built under present conditions. “What is missing, for many, is confidence. Confidence that there are jobs worth returning to. Confidence that a medical emergency will not erase what took a decade to build. Confidence that the schools, the streets, and the systems are reliable enough that coming home does not feel like a step backward,” the report said.
