DATASET: IMPACT OF PLACE ATTACHMENT ON INTENTION TO RETURN MIGRATION

Interprovincial migration for career studies has endorsed an increasingly dynamic perspective. This research focuses on the return of newly graduated students to their rural places of origin regions. The act of migration is a rational behaviour conditioned by people’s social and psychological environment. This study aims to identify the relationship between individuals’ psychological attachment to a place with their return‐migration intention. The quantitative research was conducted through a survey of 440 undergraduate students in Vietnam. The results from structural equation modeling confirm that in the platform of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), natural and personal attachments with their hometown are significantly related to the return intention. Social attachment does not directly impact return but has an indirect effect on return intentions through attitude and perceived behavioural control. TPB is a valuable model for investigating the relationship between exogenous factors, attitude towards return, perceived behavioural control and intention to return to hometown in a developing country context. This study contributes to the body of return migration knowledge and recommends several solutions for policymakers in the provinces to attract more high-quality human resources for economic development in developing countries.