Who is left behind in the UK from the Vietnam migration? | migration

Over the past decade, increasing numbers of Vietnamese people have moved to Europe in hopes of a better life. Although this has largely occurred under the radar, the horrific Essex 39 tragedy in 2019, in which 39 Vietnamese bodies were found in the back of a lorry in the UK, captured global attention. Since then, journalists have exposed several smuggling networks facilitating irregular border crossings from the Netherlands to Malta, with the UK often seen as a target destination. In fact, the UK Home Office reported that the number of Vietnamese nationals arriving by small boat has increased tenfold so far in 2024.

The majority of recent Vietnamese immigrants to Europe come from minority regions in northern and central Vietnam. Despite widespread knowledge of the dangers associated with crossing the English Channel and the dangers of exploitative working conditions in nail salons or cannabis farms, many young people have come to believe that leaving their homeland, with no future in sight, is the only way to ensure safety. . one.

But what impact does transnational migration have on the communities left behind? Let's look at Nghe An district, where the majority of Essex 39's victims came from.

Nghe An has a proud nationalist history. Vietnam's legendary independence hero Ho Chi Minh was born here. But today, Nghe An's story is primarily about economic migration.

The province has numerous new mansions financed by remittances. But look behind the wealthy exterior and you will see a much darker reality. Most young people and working-age people have left the village, leaving only the elderly and children, leaving the community empty.

Immigration has always been a group effort. Entire families (and sometimes wider relatives) pool their resources to facilitate a person's trip abroad, with the person expected to repay the investment in the future. In Nghe An, it is amazing to see so many children of long-term immigrants being cared for by older siblings, aunts and grandparents.

Min* was only one year old when his mother and father left to find work abroad. Eventually they arrived in England. Min was raised by his grandparents, and his mother and father sent back remittances to pay for his support and education. Now Minh is 16 and he still cannot return to Vietnam because his parents fear they will not be able to return to the UK. Although he speaks regularly on the phone with his five-year-old brother, he has never met him. Mr Min would like to move to the UK and reunite with his parents, but this will be difficult as his parents do not have UK permanent residency.

Vietnamese notions of kinship extend far beyond the nuclear family, and the ability of relatives (or sometimes neighbors) to take on long-term childcare responsibilities was essential in facilitating numerous labor migration trips in Nghe An.

At the same time, immigration takes a toll on family and community cohesion. When someone moves abroad and finds a new partner, many marriages fall apart, sometimes leaving children destitute at home. One man described the situation in his native village as being in disarray as traditional family structures broke down and older people were left to pick up the pieces.

In contrast to the optimistic vision of government-backed remittance funding development, here we see the dark side of immigration. That is, a depletion of the Nghe Ans social structure, replaced by increasing inequality as remittances enrich some households but not others. Ironically, transnational migration risks undermining the very kinship ties that made it possible in the first place.

What are they leaving behind? After the Vietnam War ended, Vietnam was able to escape extreme poverty for the first time in a generation. This is an economic miracle for Vietnam, once one of the poorest countries in the world. But prosperity was not distributed equally across the country. Vietnam's impressive sustained gross domestic product (GDP) growth figures mask rapidly growing income inequality. In recent years, only 12 of Vietnam's 58 provinces, including Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, have attracted nearly 60% of Vietnam's foreign direct investment, leaving little for the rest.

Nghe An is the province with the lowest per capita income, with traditional forms of livelihood such as farming and fishing becoming increasingly unprofitable and undesirable due to environmental disasters such as storms and floods exacerbated by climate change. One of them. Most prospective immigrants come from the 13.6 million people the World Bank classifies as no longer poor but economically insecure or middle class.

Research shows that it is economic inequality rather than poverty that makes people unhappy and dissatisfied. Even if we live a better life than our parents, as inequality increases, we feel left out and frustrated because we cannot keep up with those in higher socioeconomic classes. The lack of clear pathways for social mobility, a policy infrastructure that encourages international migration, combined with a strong migration brokerage industry, creates very strong incentives for migration.

According to Oxfam, the richest person in Vietnam earns more in a day than the poorest Vietnamese earns in 10 years. Vietnamese state media and social media are awash with content advertising the lavish lifestyles of the ultra-rich and middle-class in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, which the rural and working class of Nghe An aspire to but are excluded from. Because they lack the right social connections, prestigious higher education, and inherited real estate in desirable locations.

The capital of Nghe Ans and several other communities are increasingly crowded with fancy new multi-storey homes and expensive new cars of former immigrant families who have paid off their immigration debts and are now sending back remittances. And huge global inequality means that anyone working for cash in a nail salon in the UK, well below the minimum wage (up to 60 hours a week), still pays at least $300 a week. This is ten times higher than for low-skilled workers. Workers can hope to make money in Vietnam.

Europe is not the only destination for Vietnamese people looking for a way out of poverty, inequality and lack of social mobility. Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are the main Asian destinations for Vietnamese immigrants under bilateral labor export agreements that governments rely on to eradicate poverty and generate resources for the domestic economy. Recently, thousands of Nghe An people queued for up to five days for the chance to sign up for one of these overseas work schemes. This indicates a desire to leave by any possible route. Many of the people we interviewed there said that if they did not participate in one of these schemes, they would happily pool their family resources and take on huge debts to finance their irregular migration to Europe, which could put them in difficult and even life-threatening situations. I said there is.

Many governments in the Global South promote transnational labor migration as a panacea for high local unemployment and a lack of relatively well-paying jobs. Remittances can help individual families pay for education, housing or healthcare, but they can also lead to long-term dependence on migration.

Immigration is a human right, but it can also be an individualistic solution to the systemic crisis of inequality. This happens when immigrant-sending governments place responsibility for national prosperity on the sending immigrants, rather than investing in infrastructure and promoting local economic development in poor regions.

The people we spoke to in Nghe An were driven by a desire to vn ln (to climb the social ladder), to put all their effort and energy into the future of their families, and to avoid the shame of being left behind among the poor. I was drawn to it. . One woman, whose son left for England 10 years ago, said: Life here has always been difficult. These days, it's enough to survive, but if you want to save, invest or achieve social mobility, migration is the only option.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.

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