Challenges to Rural Poverty Reduction in Viet Nam - Oxfam Blogs

Five-year Synthesis Report
Part 2: Challenges to Rural Poverty Reduction in Viet Nam
5. LABOUR MOBILITY AND GENDER RELATIONS
Labour mobility in Viet Nam, understood in this report as “migration for employment
purpose” is increasing rapidly (Box 5.1). Labour mobility creates diversified livelihoods
and is an increasingly important driver of poverty reduction in rural areas. This section
presents the trends, motivations, and risks of labour mobility at the monitoring points,
including working away from home (regular and seasonal), local casual jobs, and labour
export. The data and analysis are gender-disaggregated within possible capacity.
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Box 5.1. Increasing migration in Viet Nam
Migration is the most important contributor to urbanization in Viet Nam, contributing
up to 57% to the urban population growth. Most national surveys underestimate
the level of migration. The Population Census includes permanent migrants, but not
temporary or seasonal migrants.
According to the latest Population Census, domestic migration has increased from
4.5 million people in 1999 to 6.6 million in 2009. Migration between urban areas and
from rural to urban areas doubled between 1999 and 2009. The Central Highlands
and the Southeast are two major destinations for migrants. Most migrants are seeking
work. The majority of rural to urban migrants areas are young with an average age
of 25. Increasing numbers of migrants are women. It is estimated that there are from
400,000 to 500,000 Vietnamese workers temporarily working in regional countries
and in the Middle East.
It is forecast that the number of migrants will increase, and there will be 10.4 million
migrants in 2019, accounting for 12% of the total population. The ratio of rural
migrants to the total urban population will increase from 9% in 2009 to 11% in 2019.
Source: UNDP, “Social services for human development – Country Report on Human
Development 1022”, November 2011; and General Statistics Office, “Viet Nam Population and
Housing Census 2009: Major findings”, June 2010.
5.1. Working away from home
Trends
More people are working away from home and for longer. Most migrate to other
provinces. In the surveyed communes the proportion of people working away from
home rose from 5% to 8% over the five years of the survey. (Table 7.1). The lowland
communes, with high number of Kinh or Kh’mer ethnic people (Duc Huong - Ha Tinh, and
Thuan Hoa - Tra Vinh) have the highest proportion of migrant workers. People migrate
for at least three months a year (82%) and most find jobs outside their home province
(78%)
Ethnic minority people in mountainous communes rarely work away from home.
Those that do, do so for up to three months and most do not leave their province. In
border communes, (Luong Minh - Nghe An, Xy - Quang Tri) some ethnic minority people
go to Laos to work.
More men work away from home than women, although the proportion of
migrant women is rising. Table 5.1 shows that men tend to go further in search
of work than women. Destinations where women often go to are low-land areas. The
number women of Kh’mer women working away from home has increased significantly
in the last five years.