For this discussion, I will share a personal decision I had to make. Before
2017, I was allowed to migrate with my mother to the United States.
While what I chose is already apparent, I heavily considered what
migrating would mean for me back then. Because of the history
between the USA and the Philippines, Filipinos tend to look up to the
USA. I often hear many of my peers back there wanting to move here,
but the opportunity cost was me leaving my extended family and
friends I have grown up with. Another opportunity cost was stopping
college for some time to process the necessary papers and procedures
(such as medical checkups and interviews) the US Embassy required of
its hopeful immigrants. One last opportunity cost would be missing out
on the life I could have lived in the Philippines.
Experiencing living in another country and culture cannot be measured
in numbers, but it feels as though it made up for all the opportunity
costs I had listed. I think I earn more than my peers in the Philippines
because of the US Dollar-to-Philippine Peso exchange rate in terms of
quantitative factors. However, I really cannot put a number on how
much my life has changed, but choosing to migrate with my mother was
a good choice.
While I made a personal decision, my decision-making process mirrored
the one used by businesses in the book. I had not known this at that
time, but the steps are the same. I had to identify a problem or a
dilemma: to migrate or not to migrate, and I had to weigh the
uncertainties such as the flight safety, failing the interview, or not
acclimating to American culture as fast as possible. During the whole
event, my mother and I asked other people who had already migrated
or were in the process a lot of questions. We also researched (googled)
many things we should do before, during, and after migration. My
mother and I talked about the future for us if we migrated, and the
conversion rate had been discussed as well if we were to send
remittances to the Philippines. There was only one alternative for me:
staying in the Philippines, but I do not regret anything today. I made a
good decision.
