Challenges to Rural Poverty Reduction in Viet Nam - Oxfam Blogs

Five-year Synthesis Report
Part 2: Challenges to Rural Poverty Reduction in Viet Nam
BOX 5.2. Why migrate?
• Flooding (Duc Huong - Ha Tinh) and droughts (Luong Minh - Nghe An, Phuoc Dai
- Ninh Thuan) are increasingly unpredictable and cause more damage, resulting
in heavy looses to plantations and livestock.
• No or little productive land (Kh’mer people in Thuan Hoa - Tra Vinh). Mechanization
of agriculture also reduces the demand for local workers, whilst demand for house
maids and sales support in urban areas is increasing, creating opportunities for
Kh’mer women.
• Most young people finishing secondary education (Duc Huong - Ha Tinh) or
primary education (Thuan Hoa Tra Vinh) do not have the opportunity to continue
their studies, so many migrate to the city to find work and help their families.
• Better transport and new inter-provincial bus routes make it easy for migrant
workers to return home (Duc Huong - Ha Tinh, Luong Minh - Nghe An, Cu Hue -
Dak Lak, Thuan Hoa - Tra Vinh).
• Mobile phones mean people working away from home can easily connect with
employers, job brokers, and family.
• In Luong Minh - Nghe An, men want to avoid temptations such as drug use, and
women want to find husbands elsewhere.
• In coffee harvest season in the Central Highlands, farming season (weeding,
planting, harvesting corns, cutting sugarcanes, picking cashew nuts), there is a
big demand for unskilled workers, which are seasonal opportunities for people
who have time available due to a lack of land for production, or those that can
only harvest 1 season a year (Duc Huong - Ha Tinh, Thuan Hoa - Tra Vinh, Phuoc
Dai - Ninh Thuan, Phuoc Thanh - Ninh Thuan).
• After the global financial crisis in 2009, many companies went to rural areas, even
far ethnic minority mountainous areas (Luong Minh - Nghe An), to recruit workers
with little education.
95
Few ethnic minority mountainous people work away from home. Few have access
to the social networks and information necessary to find work. As historically there have
been few ethnic minority migrants there are no trusted and known contacts in low-lying
areas. Some young people want to work away from home, but have to rely on unknown
job brokers, which can be risky. Long distances and travel costs are also an obstacle.
Traditional gender roles mean there are fewer ethnic minority migrant women. Married
women rarely leave the house unaccompanied, and are expected to work at home,
taking care of their husbands, children and household farms. Women tend also to be
less educated and are less likely to speak Vietnamese (Box 5.3). The priority for selfsufficiency
of food and under developed labour market in ethnic minority mountainous
communities also discourages migration. In some villages, households with members
working away from home and leaving their fields under-farmed are regarded as “lazy”.