The paper examines the extent to which national identification changed among 91 Americans who immigrated to Australia from 1974 to 1978. The objective was to gain a deeper understanding of the bonds between individuals and nations by examining the decisions and decision processes of people who had actually been confronted with and taken advantage of a viable alternative to their native American citizenship. Survey data were gathered for 290 American migrants. Of these, 91 (all adults who had migrated and adopted Australian citizenship between 1974 and 1978) were selected for further analysis. A major area of investigation centered around reasons for the citizenship change. Responses given most frequently were a desire to participate in the Australian political process and a chance for career advancement. Findings indicated that people who changed citizenship because of career advancement reasons were more likely to express conflicts and regrets concerning their citizenship decisions than were people who changed for political obligation reasons and that those who had had a longer time to reconcile their new legal citizenship status with prior national identification expressed less inner conflict over their decisions. The conclusions are that because national identification is such a deep-seated part of individual self-concept, changes in citizenship are difficult and costly for many people, earlier values and attitudes are likely to intrude in the form of continuing conflict and regret, and some people are unable to change their subjective national self-identification to the country to which they perceive they owe their political obligation. (Author/DB)