October 27, 3:30pm-4:30pm | Minorities on the Move: Changing Migration Strategies and Destinations among Vietnam’s Ethnic Minorities
Posted in: Work in Progress
Timothy Gorman (MSU) and Christine Bonnin (University College Dublin)
Vietnam has experienced massive waves of internal migration since the beginning of economic reforms in the 1990s. Much research on this migration, however, has focused on the country’s majority population of ethnic Vietnamese (or Kinh), while less attention has been paid to the other ethnic groups that make up a sizable minority of the country’s population. This paper focuses on ethnic minority migration from two regions: the mountainous northwest, home to minority groups such as the Hmong and Tay, and the Mekong River Delta in the south, which is home to a large Khmer population. Drawing on data from Vietnamese Population and Housing Census, we first look at geographic patterns of migration, identifying the major sending and receiving areas for ethnic minority migrants from both regions. Then, we look in more depth at the push and pull factors that contribute to migration at the individual level, focusing in particular on how education, gender, and occupational segregation shape migration patterns among ethnic minorities.
What we find is that, despite prevailing stereotypes within Vietnam that cast minority communities as isolated, traditional, and passive in the face of change, members of these groups — and especially younger people — are engaged in migration on a large and growing scale, most notably to Vietnam’s cities and industrial zones. This migration, however, does not simply reflect aspirations for economic improvement or educational opportunities, but reflects the acute pressures faced by ethnic minority communities in rural Vietnam, where traditional agrarian livelihoods are being undermined by both economic integration and environmental change.
Please contact Tim Gorman or Kate Temoney if you would like to join the workshop session.
Wendesday, October 27, 2021 3:30pm-4:30pm. Session held via zoom.
