Peasants on the Move: Rural-Urban Migration in the Hanoi Region 9789814376846

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Occasional Paper No. 91

Peasant s on the Move Rura~rban

Migration in the Hanoi Region

The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS ) was established as an autonomous organization in 1968. It is a regional research centre for scholars and other specialists concerned with modem Southeast Asia, particularly the many-faceted problems of stability and security, economic development, and political and social change. The Institute 's research programmes are the Regional Economic Studies Programme (RES ), Regional Strategic and Political Studies Programme (RSPS), Regional Social and Cultural Studies Programme (RSCS). and the Indochina Programme (ICP) . The Institute is governed by a twenty-two-member Board of Trustees comprisi ng nominees from the Singapore Government, the National University of Singapore, the various Chambers of Commerce. and profes ional and civic organizations . A ten-man Executive Committee oversees day - to-day operations; it is chaired by the Director. the Institute 's chief academk and administrative officer. The Indochina Programme (lCP) of the Institute was fanned in late 1991 to meet the increasing need for information and cholastic asse sment on the fastchanging situation in Indochina in general and in Vietnam in particular. Research is development-based, with a focu s on contemporary i ues of political economy. This is done by resident and visiting fellows of various nationalitie . To understand the Vietnamese perspective better. the programme invites scholars from Vietnam to do research on is ues of topical intere t.

Peasants on the Move Rural-Urban Migration in the Hanoi Region

Li Tana

INDOCHINA PROGRAMME

INSTITUTE OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES

Cataloguing In Publication Data Li Tana. Peasants on the move : rural-urban migration in the Hanoi region. (Occasional paper/Institute of Southeast Asian Studies: no. 91) I. Rural- urban migration - Vietnam - Hanoi. 2. Migrant labor - Vietnam - Hanoi - Economic conditions. 3. Migrant labor - Vietnam - Hanoi - Social conditions. 4. Urbanization - Vietnam - Hanoi. I. Title. II. Series sis 95-82335 1996 DS50 I 159 no. 89 ISBN 981 -3055-07-3 ISSN 0073-9731

Published by Institute of Southeast A ian Srudies Heng Mui Keng Terrace Pasir Panjang Singapore 119596 All rights reserved. No part of thi s publication may be reproduced. stored in a retrieval system. or transmitted in any form or by any mean . electronic. mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise . without the prior permission of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

1.0 1996 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies

The responsibility for facts and opinions expressed in this publicaJion rests exclusively with the author and her interpretations do not necessarily reflect the views or the policy of the Institute. Typeset by Superskill Graphics Pte Ltd Printed in Singapore by Stamford Press Pte Ltd

Contents

[ntroduction

II The Background m Hanoi City IV Socio-Economic Characteristics of the Migrants

v

A Migrant's Lot

Vl Government Policy and Solutions Appendix References

3

15 18 41 59 68 76

Acknowledgements

Through the endless streets of Hanoi, the weary peasant trudges ... He is tired but has to uep wandering . from one street to another, and sometimes returns to the same place without knowing it ... Arriving at a junction, he sees a crowd, the majority of whom were also weary peasants. like himself .. . Vu Trong Phung, Com thay com co (Kindness of Strangers), 1936

This study was made possible by funding from the Konrad Adenaue r Foundatio n, the Ford Foundatio n, and the MacArthu r Foundatio n. The author thanks Prof. Nguyen Van Thieu, Nguyen Van Dai and other friends at the Centre for Populatio n and Human Resource s Studies whom I co-operat ed with, and Prof. Pham Do Nhat Tan, Director of the Centre for Scientific Informati on on Labour and Social Affairs of Vietnam' s Ministry of Labour and Invalids, for the suppon and generous help. I owe a debt of gratitude to Professor s Le Dang Doanh, Dao The Tuan, Bui Huy Khoat, and Diep Dinh Hoa. I also wish to thank Phi Van Ba, Prof. Tuong Lai, Pham Bich San, and Nguyen Thi Van Anh of the Institute of Sociology, National Centre of Social Sciences in Vietnam, for their professio nal advice on the questionn aires and help on relevant information. Prof. Pham Due Duong, Nguyen Van Cu, Quach Nghiem, Chu Viet Cuong, Tran Khanh, Duong Thi Back Kim, Do Tbinh also helped. To Russell Heng, who spent many hours discussin g and editing the manuscrip t, I remain deeply in debt. I would like to thank the Institute of Southeas t Asian Studies, Singapor e, for providing me with a Research Fellowsh ip that made this work possible. I am grateful to Twang Peckyang , Dean Forbes, Peter Xenos, Diana Wong, Stephani e Fahey, David Marr, Benedict Kerkvlie t, Michael DiGrego rio, Adam McCarty , Momoki Shiro, and Mya Than, for their encourag ement and valuable help. To those Vietnamese peasants who sought their livelihood and fonune in Hanoi, and who spent their valuable time talking to me and our team mem~rs, under the sun and in the dim light of evening during the hot and humid summer of 1993, I am deeply grateful.

I Introduction

A consistent characteris tic throughou t Vietname se hi s tory is the government 's influence on population movement. In traditional Vietnam, prisoners, soldiers and recruited poor peasants were sent to the southern frontier, decade after decade, from the tenth century AD. The French perhaps made more effort to recruit labourers for their mines and plantations. None of them, however, was as effective as the policy of compelling people to move to the New Economic Zones. carried out by the current regime . Between 1960 and 1992, it was reported that 5.3 million people moved to the New Economic Zones .' In the past 40 years, another important feature of Vietnamese population movement was that migration in northern Vietnam were predominan tly organized movements to the rural frontiers. and hence the current pattern of reverse traffic from the rural parts to urban centres like Hanoi is a rather recent phenomeno n . Although labour was sold widely as a commodity in the French colonial period just as in traditional Vietnamese society, after 40 years of Marxist government in the North , when thou sands of peasants reappeared on the streets of Hanoi in the early 1990s looking for unskilled 2 jobs, it was regarded as "a completely new phenomeno n" to officials and Hanoians . Indeed, virtually no historical record exists in any government department file s about those people. These movements are also absent from contempora ry statistics: census results allow an estimate of the volume and direction of the permanent migrations organized by the state but are not useful for separating those who are permanently settled and those who are periodicaJly on the move; thi s mobile population cannot be estimated even indirectly via the national census of 1989, such as through the "place of previous residence five years ago" question, because the phenomenon itself became of some significance only in the last two to three years . What makes a large population flowing back and forth , come and go? How do they live? What do they think? All these are basically unknown to the public, as well as to scholars. 1

2

PEASANTS ON THE MOVE

Although it encompasses only a little over 5 per cent of Vietnam's total natural area, population in the Red River delta is 21 per cent of the country's total. 3 There is no doubt th~t this region is "subject to population pressure and is reaching the limit of its capacity", as Vietnamese authorities admitted. 4 Increasing unemployment is one of the major challenges to the state. This makes a study on rural to urban migration, in Vietnam in general and on Hanoi in particular, timely. This study is mainly based on a survey and on interviews with the unskilled workers, the principal participants of the spontaneous migration from the rural areas to Hanoi, and were conducted by the author and the Centre for Population and Human Resources Studies of Vietnam's Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs between August and September 1993. Through this survey, the study seeks to estimate the main trends, directions and patterns of the population movement in the Red River delta. It will examine the basic institutional changes in the countryside since Vietnam's formally endorsed market reforms, known as doi moi, began in 1986; and the new changes such as the improved transportation system and lodging houses for migrants, all of which are relevant to labour force movement. Within this context, the study will analyse Vietnamese Government policy on voluntary migration, and its possible consequences. Notes

l.

2.

3.

4.

Pham Do Nhat Tan, "Migration for New Economic Zone Building: Achievements, Problems and Solutions", Scientific Bulletin on Labour and Social Affairs, Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, no. 2 ( 1993), p. 5. In Vietnamese "coi nhu hoan toan moi me", see Pham Kien Cuong. " Van de lao dong doi du tap trung ra thanh pho kiem viec lam voi cong tac dang Icy quan ly ho khau : thuc trang va giai phap" (Redundant rural workforce moving to cities for jobs and residence registration: Situation and solution), in Symposium on Social Policies and Residence, Travel and Traffic Safety in Market Mechanism (Hanoi: Ministry of Interior, 1993), p. 60. Its population density is higher than that of the Pearl River delta in southern China, most parts of Java, and of Bangladesh, a country which is frequently referred as the most crowded country in Asia, according to some statistics. See Le Trong Cue, Kathleen Gillogly, and A. Terry Rambo, "Too Many People, Too Little Land : The Human Ecology of A Wet Rice-Growing Village in the Red River Delta of Vietnam", Program on Environment, EastWest Center/Center for National Resources Management and Environmental Studies, Hanoi University, 1993, p. l. Report on the Economy of Vietnam (Hanoi: Vietnam State Planning Committee, 1990), p. 80.

II

The Background

Migration is by no means new and alien to Vietname se. since three-fifth s of the territory of pre ent-day Vietnam was obtained mainly by migration of the Vietname e people over the centuries. a movemen t well known as nam tien (southwar d expan sion ). Migration is one of the most significan t features of Vietname e hi tory. and the natural increase or decrease of the populatio n wa remarkab l y influence d by it from time to time. Migration became a more frequent phenome non during the French colonial period . Ba. ically there were three categorie s: rural - urban migration , periodic mo ve ment between _mall -sca le s ubsistenc e cultivatio n and the plantation and mining area that were owned and operated by the French, and seasonal migratio n between various agricultur al areas during the planting and harve t ea o n · in search of temporary employm ent. The last category seem to be of the largest volume . The principal centre of demand for seasonal migrati on of wage labourer. was the rice-cultiv ation zone, which stretched over the prov inces of Ha Dong, Ha Nam, Nam Dinh and Ninh Binh. The local labour force was insufficie nt to ensure that harvesting would be accompli shed quickly enough before crop were lost to heavy stom1s and considera ble flooding . Another centre of demand for sea. onal migrant labour was in the highland · that extended along the rim of the Red River delta. Seasonal migration were able to take place because harvests occurred at different times and places in the delta .' Thompso n estimated that by the mid1930s at least two-third s of Tonkines e had moved around to be employed as temporary informal workers for part of the year, for "ls]eason al migration s 2

are the rule in over-popu lated di stricts" Rural-urb an migration at the time might have a more permanen t nature . By 1905 , Tonkin alone had at least 85 separate indu strial enterpris es, concentra ted in the Hanoi and Haiphong regions, which employed more than 3 12,000 workers, miners not included. Changes in Vietnam since the late 1980s have by now been welldocument ed . Four institutional changes, however, are basic elements relevant to the current labour force movemen t in Vietnam. 3

4

PEASANTS ON THE MOVE

Relevant Factors The first is the policy of decollectivizing the land - the khoan muoi (Contract I 0) or khoan ho (household contract) which finally accepted that the family was the basic unit in the rural economy in 1988. and land was di stributed to individual families .4 This mean s that the countryside is open to diverse production relation ships rather than just the state-endorsed collective approach. and labourers do not have to be tied to the land any more . The second is the mass ive dece ntrali zation of power. which has resulted in a relaxation of the restriction on population movement. a restriction that was critical for the command economy in Vietnam before the late 1980s. Free flow of labour was then virtually imposs ible and only existed as transfers (dieu dong) within a system totall y managed top down from the higher level s to the grass-roots . The third factor is related to the second . Compulsory re side ntial regi stration was vital to everybody. in urban as well a rural regions , since it was neces sary to get subsidized food suppl y and othe r we lfare provisions that would only be provided in the area a person is registered in . The abolition of the s ubsidy syste m in the late 1980s ha made individual movement poss ible, because even though regi stration is still mandatory. being unregi stered no longer affects a person 's li ve lih ood that critically. To ordinary Vietnamese it can almost be see n as a kind of liberation. because it mean s that the power to control people 's movement by the Party and state has been greatly reduced. The fourth factor might not seem so si gnificant but it has certainly facilitated populati o n mo ve ment. The removal of re s triction s on the development of the private sector ha s led to th e flourishing of private tran sportation companies in the region . Not only wa it all right politically to get moving. but the mean s for doing it became available . The timing of the se four policies reflect a quite typical Vietnamese characteristic in the era of dni moi. Since the late 1980 . rapid economic growth has been the centre of the policy refom1 in Vietnam and has been enjoying top national priorit y. To achieve thi . ne w policies in many areas were iss ued one after the other, thereby re ulting in a cumulati ve impact, and spontaneous migration was such an outcome . In 1987 the remova l of re strictions on private sec tor in volveme nt in trade and tra nspo rtation was announced while Decree No . I 0, which encouraged individual agricultural production , came into force in April 1988. As one of the most important policies on agriculture. it had an instant effect by increasing productivity. Meanwhile. it made the iss ue of labour surplus in the rural areas more obvious than ever before. Almost at the same time. as an immediate result of the endorsement of the private sectors, Resolution No. 4 of the Hoi Dong Bo Truong (Council of Ministers) was issued in July 1988 . Thi s reso lution was aimed at adjusting the policy restricting population

THE BACKGROUND

5

movement to the urban areas. which had been enforced by the government since 1964. These changes affect many aspects of Vietnamese society, but perhaps none is more obvious and disturbing than migration, started substantially since the early 1990s. Before turning to the details of this study, a quick review on the situation in the Vietnamese countryside is necessary.

The Countryside in Perspective One of the major problems faced by peasants is that a substantial portion of their meagre income is reserved for paying all kinds of taxes . State agricultural tax may have decreased slightly, but a great variety of "deductions" and "levies" have to be paid to local administrative bodies . The authoritative party daily Nhan Dan listed seven of them, in the places where cooperatives existed , called qu y hop tac xa (contributions to the cooperatives) , including contributions on society, medicine, security, administration, irrigation works. quy khau hao, and accumulation. These fees take about l 0 per cent of peasants' net income and \vtth another 15 per cent going to agricultural taxes, 75 per cent of income is left for the peasants themselves. s This was. of course, an official figure. In some places it was said that 50 per cent of the harvest were paid to taxes and levies of cooperatives. There were I 0,400 such cooperatives remaining in the country in early 1993, most of which are in the Red River delta and Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, and Ha Tinh provinces, rather than in the south and the minorities' regions.6 Bountiful harvest does not guarantee the peasant a good income. Although the rice harvest was good in 1992, the domestic price of rice actually fell. The despair that peasants faced was best expressed in a popular saying among peasants, " It is not enough to buy a can of beer, even [when] you sell l 0 kilograms of rice" (ban muoi can thoc khong du mua mot coc bia). Another popular anecdote was that a peasant bad to sell 15 kilograms of rice in order to buy one kilogram of meat. Knowing the size of each harvest for a rural family unit will give a better appreciation of how meagre the returns on farming can be. The harvest is . around 150 kilograms of unhusked rice per sao (300 square meters) per crop, which is about 150,000 dong (US$15) in the summer of 1993. Land for a family of five is about four sao, which means 600 kilograms of unhusked rice or US$60 per crop. While the price of rice has been falling , the prices of raw material needed for agriculture - insecticide, fertilizer, etc. - have been increasing, in some cases doubling. There were 54.1 million people Jiving in the rural areas in 1991. About 24 million people were employed, including women engaged in housework and helping out with the farrnwork. However, according to some statistics, among the 24 million so-called employed people, 500,000 had no stable jobs

6

PEASANTS ON THE MOVE

Uobs available less than six months per year). Their ages were from 15 to 24 . Non.g Dan Vi et Nam estimated that there were at least 1.2 million unemployed or underemployed.7 Yet according to the Ministry of Labour, this figure should be multiplied by ten. It said that about ten million labourers in the rural areas were unemployed or underemployed, which meant that one-fifth of the rural population was s urplu s labour.g If thi s was so in the whole country, surplu s labour in the Red River delta could only be much higher, given its high density of population . Under current economic conditions. thi s problem seems to be difficult to so lve. According to various stati stic s and surveys by the Mini stry of Labour, 500,000 to o ne million dong (US$50-l 00 do llars) is needed to create one position in agriculture (livestock farming and planting), while jobs in specialized trades need at least three to fi ve million do ng (US$300-500 dollars) each .9 With average monthly income be ing only US$2 per labourer, few families can afford thi s. Furthermore, it is not a simple case of where there are funds. employment can be created. In April 1992 the Council of Mini sters issued Resolution 120. which led to the es tabli shment of a special fund by the National Bank to promote employment. The fund comprised 830 ty don g (US$830 million ), of which 250 ty don g (US$250 millio n) was available to be loaned to anyone who was able to create jobs, at interest rates as low as 0 .6 per cent to 1.2 per cent. Yet "quite a big percentage" 10 remained untouched in the Bank. The reason s for thi s certainly included th e te di o us requirement th a t loan applicants had to pa y for man y application forms eve n before knowi ng whether they actually quali fy to borrow funds . Another reason, however, seemed more important : while a few rich familie s could borrow money quite easily from the Bank , most of the people who wan ted to apply had nothing valuable to pledge as collateral in order to get the funding . Officials who could have been guarantors for the se people did not dare do so, fearing that their own properties would be seized if the borrowe rs defaulted on their loan payments. " Hanoi, for instance . only used 40 ty dong {US$40 million ) out of the 150 ty (US$150 million) that could ha ve been used in 1992Y Even though it is now encouraged by the gove rnment ,~_~ presently most of the peasant s find it difficult to change from the production of rice to produc tion of mo re cash crops. Although northern and upland farmers increasingly feel the need for thi s since they can obtain cheap Mekong delta rice throughout the year in local markets. the lack of good and stable markets for cash crops di ss uades them from making a ri sky decision . 14 Although the government's slog a n toward s s urplu s rural labour is "leaving land without leaving village" (roi ruong khong roi lang) or better known as ly th o hat ly /w ong. which encourages side line production in rural area s (usually involving process ing of agricultural products ), turning to this is not an answer for most of the peasants either. In fact , it is still somewhat

THEBACKGROUND

7

monopolized by the state sector. According to Adam Fforde, in 1992, "nonstaple agricultural processing is one of the few branches of the Vietnamese economy where the reported State share has been increasing" 15 because it is profitable. For most of the peasants, such sideline production in the rural area is not an answer yet. Spontaneous migration therefore becomes an easier solution under such circumstances.

Directions and Trends "Creating jobs for oneself and others ... is the basic way to solve the problem [of unemployment and underemployment] , and the most practical way for the time being" 16 • the party daily Nhan Dan advises urban dwellers, but it could apply just as well to the situation in the countryside. Indeed. rural people are starting to do so. A poll conducted by Nong Dan Vi et Nam (Journal of Vietname se Peasantry) indicates that 75 per cent of young peasants chose leaving the countryside as their aspiration in Iife. 17 The general tendency is for them to move to urban rather than rural destinations. According to an incomplete statistical study in early 1993. 930.000 people in Vietnam either did not regi ster or regi stered in one place but actually lived in another. About 350.000 of them lived in Ho Chi Minh City, and 140,000 lived in Hanoi. but the true figures were perhaps double these numbers . The figures have been increasing every year, according to the Mini stry of Labour. 18 Spontaneous movement of people has become a major factor in a labour market which has been taking shape in Vietnam, after years of job allocation according to a central planning system . Labour markets deserve closer attention because in 1989, Marxist cholars were still debating whether human beings could be sold as a commodity in the form of truculent questions such as : ''If labour could be [a] commodity, does it mean that Nguyen Van Linh [the Secretary General of the Vietnamese Communi st Party at that time] be [a] commodity as well?" Before they reached an agreement, labour markets began to appear in the orthodox north in 1989. The first of these to appear were in the suburbs of Hanoi such as Co Nhue. Bat Trang and Van Dian . lt can be regarded as a testing of the waters by the peasants - migrants and potential migrants - to see how the state would react. However, it could also be regarded as mutual probing by both the peasants and the state to see how far they could relax the old structures in a free labour market. Then gradually the labour markets moved into Hanoi in early 1992, in the Giang Yo, La Thanh, Nga Tu So, and Giap Bat areas. Once they were there, labour markets in Hanoi developed more rapidly than anywhere else in north Vietnam. This population movement was not a response to industriali zation , however. The share of national income by industry was only 22.8 per cent in

8

PEASANTS ON THE MOVE

1991 and factories have limited ability even to provide enough work for their current employees. The experience of China with similar agricultural reforms in the early 1980s was that small and private rural industries brought about a rapid increase in the demand for more non-agricultural employment opportunities in the countryside . Such a situation is still to be seen in Vietnam, particularly in the Red River delta. Where Hanoi was concerned. it was the extensive construction and renovation projects in the city. mainly of private hotels and houses. which spawned a constant and increasing demand for labour. Most people at the labour markets were hired for such work. Some people still feel uneasy at the way it sounds for in Vietnamese it is often called cho nguoi, meaning the market sells human beings. or cho lao dong, the market that sells labourers. However. some officials sensitive to the question of terminology suggested that a better name to use would be tram giao dich lao dong or labour exchange station. 19 The inadequate industrial sector has also forced some of these migrants into other sectors such as mining and forestry. Gold prospecting and gemstone mining have attracted many peasants aJI over the country. About 500,000 people were working at 500 such spots. said the authorities. 20 Forests are being rapidly damaged, and have been disappearing in the Central Highland since 1991. Coal mining in Quang Ninh province in the north has also been a destination of migrants. It was estimated that some 14 major and 200 smaller mines were illegally operating in this province. destroying hundreds of hectares of forest land. 21 While the aims of some of the people engaged in those sectors is to get rich. for most of the others. it is merely to gain employment. This situation is expected to regularize when the state steps up its organization effort. A much smaller flow comprises migrants from the delta going to work in the mountainous regions. Most of the peasants in this group are experienced in building, household repairs. making furniture. and other artisan skills. The Ministry of Labour has reported that tens of thousands of peasants moved back and forth every year between the mountainous region and their home provinces. namely. Thai Sinh, Nam Ha, Hai Hung and Ha Son Sinh provinces. 22 The main migrant traffic. therefore. is still rural to rural, rather than rural to urban. The main direction is north to south, particularly the less populated regions of Dac Lac and Lam Dong provinces in the Central Highland. and Vung Tau-Con Dao area in the southeast. 23 From 1976 to 1992, 4.28 million labourers from central and north Vietnam moved to the south as organized migrants. 24 However, the most remarkable phenomenon in the recent years is the spontaneous migration to these regions, particularly by minority peoples in north Vietnam. While about 150,000 people moved to Lam Dong province under the organized migration scheme in the last 10 years, approximately 50,000 people had moved there spontaneously in the three years up to 1992. 25

THEBACKGROUND

9

Together with the migration within each province or region, rural to rural migration is going to be the main outlet for surplus labour in Vietnam for quite a while. The percentage of government-organized migration, however, might go down while spontaneous migration goes up . However. rural-urban migration is also beginning to emerge with definite trends and directions. The triangle including Hanoi , Hai Phong and Quang Ninh province will be a centre of development, according to Prime Minister Yo Van Kiet. 26 With Hanoi the political, economic and cultural centre. Hai Phong the largest port in the north, and Quang Ninh a province rich in mineral resources on the Sino-Vietnamese border, this strategically important triangle will no doubt be a major growth region in the north , therefore absorbing a large amount of labour from north and central Vietnam. Given this potential , the population drift to Hanoi and its neighbouring region is probably only the beginning. With the rapid economic development of the 1990s, a much larger population movement in Vietnam in general, and in this northern triangle in particular, can be expected. One factor will no doubt accelerate the population movement: the new Land Law passed by the National Assembly in July 1993 . Thi s new legislation di smantled the existing collective ownership of land and redistributed land among villagers , allowing individual farming families to have 20-year land tenure , which would include the right to transfer, exchange, lease, bequeath as inheritance and use as collateral for bank loans. It marks a break not only with the basic land policy of the past 40 years, but also with Vietnamese tradition . According to some Vietnamese scholars, the tradition in the country was to practise a five-year land redistribution system which made it impossible to accumulate wealth and so common poverty became a characteristic of Vietnam in hi story. The present regime also implemented its own land redistribution policy as a resu lt of which it is quite common in north Vietnam for a household to own seven to fifteen plots, with a total area of a pitiful four to five sao ( I ,440 to I ,800 square metres)Y A 20-year land tenure may not seem much to countries where the right of landownership is taken for granted, but this new policy is the most radical change in land policy that is possible under the current regime, and a watershed in Vietnamese landholding history. There is no doubt that it will bring rapid change to the social structure in rural Vietnam; the question is how far, bow fast , and in what way. The new land law also adds a new input to the debate on the mobility of the Vietnamese peasantry. It has been argued by some scholars that si nce virtually every Vietnamese peasant has a piece of land to live on, the possibility of huge numbers of peasants rushing to the urban areas, seen in other Southeast Asian countries, would never happen in Vietnam . So far this bas been the case but it is hard to say how long it would last with this new land policy, which no longer guarantees land to everybody growing up in a

]0

PEASANTS ON THE MOVE

village. So the young people who become labourers after 1993, for instance, will not have their own piece of land to live on.28 It is reported that every year 700,000 young people have been joining the labour force in the countryside. 29 The flexibility to sell or rent land may also lead some villagers to part with their land and then head for the city. All things considered, the new land law is likely to make the Vietnamese peasantry more rather than less mobile. Spontaneous migration is a direct result of such changes. If in China such population movement took place most intensely in the 1980s, in Vietnam the 1990s will be such a dramatic period, and the initial signs are already visible. These early groups of migrants provide the basis for this study on migration in the Hanoi region.

Methodology The present government policy distinguishes two kinds of population movement: permanent change of residence involving the core family, termed di dan co to chuc, and temporary labour movements that generally involve individuals, termed di dan to do . The former refers to participants in government programmes; the latter is acknowledged but not measured and is what we define as spontaneous migration in this study. The latter seems to involve all kinds of mobility: short term, chain and circular. Focusing on spontaneous migration, this study concentrated on peasants who crossed administrative boundaries and came to Hanoi of their own accord, doing unskilled work and staying in Hanoi for more than a month. It is possible to classify these people as seasonal workers rather than migrants as most of them do come and leave according to agricultural cycles; and their movement might be more appropriately termed "circulation" rather than migration. Nevertheless, for the convenience of discussion, we will use the term "migration" and "migrants", to apply to them. Hanoi Police Office and the Ministry of Labour conducted a sketchy survey on migrants in Hanoi at the end of 1992. According to this survey, the migrants accounted for 3,350 cyclo (pedicab) riders, 2,000 porters, 1,870 carpenters wandering the streets for odd jobs, more than 2,000 kitchen hands, mostly working in cheap restaurants (nha hang and quan com binh dan), and I ,730 scavengers. All of them were peasants who had moved to the city. This official survey excluded those waiting to sell their labour at labour markets in Giang Vo, Nga Tu So and De La Thanh, probably because these people were not registered. 30 This survey also excluded prostitutes from the countryside. When making a report to Nguyen Khanh, Vice Prime Minister of Vietnam, Hanoi officials said that in 1993 there were about 3,000 to 5,000 prostitutes in Hanoi, 80 per cent of them from the countryside. 31 This report was published by party daily Nhan Dan; it pointed out that these figures

THE BACKGROUND

11

were far lower than the actual numbers, which were increasing to "break the record of this city" if no effective steps were taken. All the figures above should, therefore, only be regarded as indicators rather than accurate statistics. When discussing the people hanging around the labour markets in Hanoi, an article said that although the Ministry of Labour gave a total number of 500 to 600, there were about 1,000 labourers waiting to be hired everyday in Nga Tu So, one of the eight labour markets in Hanoi, alone.32 It would be a reasonable guess that about 20,000 to 30,000 spontaneous migrants were providing unskilled labour in Hanoi in the summer of 1993. A survey with a sample size of 200 was thus conducted among cyclo riders, construction workers , porters , kitchen hands , scavengers and domestic servants . Since Hoan Kiem district is the commercial centre of the city and therefore the place where a large number of migrants work, half the samples were taken from this district, and the other half was equally distributed among the districts of Ba Dinh, Hai Ba Trung and Dong Da. The samples were chosen randoml y from the streets , markets, lodging houses for migrants, and construction sites. The survey was conducted in Vietnamese. The nature of the occupations chosen above unavoidably presented a large percentage of men , rather than women . As a result women were considerably underrepresented. To get a balanced view on migrants in Hanoi, we conducted another survey of 40 shoulder pole traders in Hanoi; the results showed thj s trade was monopolized by women rrugrants. This small size survey will be used sometimes for discussion in this study to complement information from the male migrants . This study also used some data from a registration list of 86 porters in Dong Xuan market, Hanoi 's largest market, compiled by the police station in the area. (Unfortunately the market was destroyed by a fire in the second half of 1994). Vietnamese primary sources have been employed extensively for this study. Since virtually no academic work exists concerning the contemporary rural-urban migration in the Hanoi region and in Vietnam, this study uses data published in Vietnamese journals in the past two years as much as possible. Two major statistical sources were Giau ngheo trong nong thon hien nay (The rich and poor in contemporary Vietnamese countryside), published in 1993, and Detailed Analysis of Sample Results, published in 1991 . To study the relevant factors and state policy, papers presented at a conference on population movement, held by the Ministry of Interior in Hanoi in 1993, are also utilized . Notes

/2

2.

3.

4.

5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

11. 12. 13.

14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19.

20.

PEASANTS ON THE MOVE

consumed and the next harvest was not yet ready. called thang ba. ngay tam), agricultural wage labourers were often eager to work. Virginia Thompson, French Indo-China (New York: Octagon Boob Inc .. 1968), p. 149. Paullsoart, Le Phenomene National Vietnamien : de l'lndependeoce Unitaire a I'Independance Fractionee (Paris: Libraire general de Droit et de Jurisprudence ). p. 264. Quoted from Murray. op. cit., p. 216. See Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet . " De-co llectivizing the Land: Everyday Politics, Policy Changes, and Village-State Relations in Vietnam". Department of Political and Social Change. Research School of Pacific Studies. Australian National University. 1993. Nhan Dan . 6 May 1991. Indochina : Vietnam. Laos, Cambodia . Country Report. The Economist Intelligence Unit. second quarter 1993. p. 14. Nong Dan VietNam, no. 6. 20 March 1992. p. 3. Lao Dong, 30 May 1993. Ibid. The fund used was actually 127 ty dong, which employed 168.500 labourers in the rural areas, according to "Bai toan viec lam o nong thon trong thoi mo cua" (Question of employment in the countryside in the Opening tbe Door period}, Lao Dong, 30 May 1993 . B. T, "Viec lam van con Ia van de nhuc nhof' (Employment is still tbe beadache), Lao Dong . 2 May 1993. Doan Quan , "Viec lam cho thanh nien Ha Nof', Nhan Dan (People ' Daily). 7 June 1993. The situation seems quite different from the policy bias in favour of rice cultivation discussed by some scholars two years ago. Interview with Prof. Le Dang Doanh, Deputy Director. Central Institute for Economic Management. II August 1993 . See Adam Fforde, ed., "Vietnam: &onomic Commentary and Analysis", no. 3, May 1993, ADUK.I Pty. Ltd, pp. 11 - 12. Adam Fforde, op. cit., pp. 66-67 . "Hanoi giai quyet viec lam" (Hanoi is tackling the problem of unemployment). Nhan Dan, 19 November 1992. "Van de viec lam doi voi lao dong tre o nong thon" (Issue of employment to the young people in the countryside), Nhan Dan, 26 May 1992. Interview with Nguyen Van Thieu, Director of the Center for Population and Human Resources Studies, 26 July 1993. Interview with Vu Trung Cbinh, Director of Center for Employment Prom~ tion, Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs of Hanoi City, on lO August 1993 . Pharn Van Due, "Van de cu tru, di lai: thuc trang va giai phap" (Problems of residence and travel : The situation and solutions), in Symposium on Social

Policies and Residence, Travel and Traffic Safety in Market Mechanism 21 .

(Hanoi: Ministry of Interior, 1993), p. 7. Allen L. Clark, "Economic, Environmental, Social and Cultural Issues in Mineral and Energy Development of Vietnam'', paper presented at the

THE BACKGROUND

22.

23. 24.

25 .

26. 27.

28 .

29. 30.

I3

Symposium and Workshop on Economic, Social. and Environmental Aspects of Development in Vietnam. Hanoi , Augu st 1993. pp. 6-7. Pham K.ien Cuong. "Moi lien quan giua quan ly ho tich, ho khau va quan ly luc Iuong lao dong xa hoi trong giai doan chuyen sang nen kinh te thi truong, thuc trang va giai phap" (Relations between management of residence regi stration and management of labour in the tran sition to a market system). in Symposium on Social Policies and Residence. Travel and Traffic Safety in Market Mechanism (Hanoi : Mini try of Interior. 1993 ). p. Ill . Detailed Analysis of Sample Results (Hanoi : General Statistical Office. 1991 ). pp. 42. 48 and 49. Pham Do Nhat Tan. "Di dan xav dung cac vung kinh te moi: Thanh tuu. van de va giai phap" (Re ettlement of population in New Economic Zones : Achievements. problems and . ol uti ons), in Symp osium on Social Policies and Residence. Travel and Traffic Safety in Market Mechanism (Hanoi : Mini stry of interior, 1993 ). p. 63 . Ngu yen Phong Hoa. "Nhung kien nghi de xuat qua 1·iec xu phat 1·i pham hanh hinh trong linh vue CLI tru di lai cua cong dan \ 'O rrat tu an roan giao thong duong bo'' (Suggestions and proposal regarding th e impos ition of admini trative penaltie on violations of residence. trave l. oc ial order and traffic rule ). in Symposium on Social Policies and Residence. Travel and Traffic Safety in Marla•t Me chanism (Hanoi : Mini stry of Interior. 1993). p. 33 . "Prime Minister Yo Van Kiet asked : What is the tri angle zone of Hanoi Haiphong-Quang NinhT' , Lao Dong. 26 August 1993, p. I. interview with Prof. Dao The Tuan. University of Agriculture on 2 September 1993 ; and with Dr Quach Nghiem. Executive Director. Centre of Population, En vironment and Rural Development. Hanoi . on 7 September 1993 . China's experience in thi s area might shed some li ght on thi s iss ue . Accord ing to an official report . in four villages of Bai Cheng di ~ tri c t. Jilin province. the land wa distributed among 1.656 labourers in 1983. under the policy of family responsibility. Only four years later, 557 young people. which was 34 per cent of the population in the four vi llages. had grown up and joined the labour force , onl y to find out that there wa not an inch of land for them to uve on . Mo 1 of them cannot go to the universities. while small and private sectors in the region can absorb only a few of them . Leaving the vi llages became the only solution for them . Thi s kind of situation is sa id to have existed in many regions in China in different degrees. and will be developing. See Li Moog Bai , Ho Xin et al. , eds., Liu don g ren kou dui da cheng shi fa zhan de ying xiang ji dui ce CThe impact of the floating population on the development of large cities, and the solutions ) (Beijing: Jingji Ribao Press, 1991). p. 27. " Van de viec lam doi voi lao dong tre o nong thon" (The issue of a young labour force in the countryside) , Nhan Dan , 25 May 1992. p. 3. " Nguoi do ve thu do tim viec lam, ganh nang qua tai cua Ha Noi'' (People pouring into the capital to find jobs, make Hanoi overloaded), Nhan Dan, 7 April 1993 . Estimation made by the Mini stry of Labour in 1993: Total

14

31 . 32.

PEASANTS ON THE MOVE

number from 10,000 to 20,000: 4,000 construction workers , 3,000 cyclo riders, and the remaining being people on the labour markets : carpenters, scavengers, maids, etc . Interview with Prof. Nguyen Van Thieu, Director of Centre for Population and Human Resources Studies of Ministry of Labour. 26 July 1993 . "Phong, chong te nim mai dam nen bat dau tu dau ?" (Where to start to fight against and avoid prostitution?) , Nhan Dan. 6 April 1993 . p. I . "Thuc trang va huong giai quyet viec nguoi tinh ngoai tim viec o Ha Noi'' (The situation about and solutions for solving the problem of people coming from other provinces seeking employment in Hanoi), Ha Noi Moi . 16 April 1993 .

III

Hanoi City

With an area of 920.5 square kilometres and a population of 2.16 million, with 1.2 million living in Hanoi proper, the population density of Hanoi is the highest in the country: 2, 161 people per square kilometres in Hanoi, and 24,558 people in the inner city area (noi thanh) .1 Average housing space per person decreased from 5.1 square metres in 1954 to 2.3 metres in 1982, and 1.2 metres in 1992. 2 Incomplete statistics for unemployment in Hanoi put it at 140,000 in 1991, and 181 ,000 in 1992.3 Theoretically the policy on migration to Hanoi still states that "Only migrants with selected skills or abilities are allowed into the city".4 One of Hanoi's characteristics is its semi-rural nature, developed within the framework of a larger agricultural society. Although established as the capital since AD 1010 it retains some semblance of this characteristic today. For a long time villages existed within the city, the so called thap tam trai (13 stockaded villages) is a case in point. Some place names in Hanoi such as Giang Vo, where the largest labour market is, and Ngoc Ha and KimMa, are actually names of villages.5 Andre Masson, a French scholar, commented early this century, "Strictly speaking, Hanoi in 1873 was not a city but a composite agglomeration where an administrative capital, a commercial town and numerous villages were juxtaposed within the same enclosure".6 Ke Cho, the most ancient name for Hanoi, literately means "the place where markets are" , which was situated opposite to Ke Que (countryside). 7 It was said that in mid-1954, one family in every two made its living from trade 8 and the trade was linked closely to the surrounding countryside stretching into the provinces around the city. For instance, the well known 36 streets (36 pho phuong) in the heart of Hanoi each specialized in a certain trade or a kind of product, as Samuel Baron described in 1685: "All of the diverse objects sold in this town have a specially assigned street, quite like the different companies and corporations in European cities".9 Many of the streets, as a matter of fact, were established by craftsmen and traders from different provinces, each street engaged with one particular trade. Hang Dong (street selling copperware) street, for example, was 15

16

PEASANTS ON THE MOVE

established in the eighteenth century by some scavengers picking scrapped copperwares, originally from Cau Nom village, Khoai Chau district, Hai Hung province. 10 Another street, Hang Hom (street selling cupboards and coffins), was established by carpenters from Ha Vi village, in today 's Thuong Tin district, Ha Tay province, in the late nineteenth century. 11 It is the same case with many other streets like Hang Huong, Hang Hanh, etc. Some other streets have more complicated backgrounds. Hang Bac, for instance, can be understood as a street dealing with silver goods, but at the same time also as a place for casting sil ver bars, as well as for money changing, since silver was used as currency for a long time in the country. Hence Hang Bac street was occupied by people engaging in three trades: silversmiths (from Thanh Tri di strict o f s uburban Hanoi and Kien Xuong di strict of Thai Binh province) and silver bar casters, who also acted as money changers (Trau Khe village, Chau Giang district, Hai Hung province). In the street, each of these occupational communities had its own temple which worshipped the particular deity of that trade . 12 Craftsmen skilled in repairin'g spectacles were mostly from Ha Tay, while locksmiths were from Hai Hung. 13 As a city, Hanoi was never completely eparated from the countryside, and it should therefore be acknowledged that Hanoi is really a city of migrants who originally came from the countryside . It has been said that few of the Hanoians have been here for five generations. As a result, almost every one has family members or close relatives in the countryside. In the last few years , Hanoi has been going through a dramatic transition, and there is no doubt that the city is urbani zing rapidl y. Ruralurban migration to Hanoi is one more manifestation of these changes. and in tum facilitates these changes. The rapid development in Hanoi 's building industry in recent years has created a great demand for construction workers. and peasant migrants supplied this labour. According to Dong Minh Son. Director of Hanoi Construction Office, over 30 per cent of the I00,000 construction workers working in Hanoi in 1993 were migrants (lao dong tu do) from the countryside. 1 ~ This. however. might still be a conservative figure. Some 25 million square metres of construction were expected to be finished in Hanoi in 1993, but the officials-in-charge agreed that this did not include a large percentage of the construction carried out by individual families , and about 1,000 mini-hotel s built in the previous two years. Workers on these sites were certainly not included either. u The underdevelopment of transport infrastructure in Hanoi has also created a demand for cyclos . To begin with, public transportation in Hanoi is only minimal. The second reason is that the old streets of Hanoi are often long and narrow, and no big vehicle can pass through except for bicycles, motorbikes and cyclos . The latter 's convenience and cheapness also made it popular. Small traders can hire it to transport their goods at the price of 1 around 3,000 dong (US30¢ ) for a trip within the city.

HANOI CITY

/7

Vietnam's reform programme. doi moi, has heightened Hanoi's role as a capital city as well as a hub of many networks spreading rapidly in the north . As the centre of such momentous changes. Hanoi is going through a transition on a scale it has never experienced before. In the chapters that follow, we will examine some of the changes that migrant workers have brought to this city, based on the survey results. Notes I.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8. 9. 10. 11 . 12. 13. 14. 15.

Vuong Linh, "Sue ep dan so o Ha Noi trong qua trinh do thi hoa" (Population pressure in Hanoi in the process of urbanization ), Phu Nu Viet Nam (Journal of Vietnamese Women ). 5 July 1993. p. II. Nigel Thrift and Dean Forbes. The Price of War: Urbani:.ation in Vietnam /954-85 (London : Allen and Unwin. 1986). p. 151; and Vu Dinh Hoanh. "Doi moi cong tac quan ly hanh chinh ve trat tu xa hoi giai qu yet trat tu cong cong o Ha Noi" . in Symposium on Social Policies and Residence. Travel and Traffic Safety in Market Mechanism (Hanoi : Mini stry of interior. 1993 ). p. 113. Doan Quan , "Viec lam cho thanh nien Ha Noi - Bai toan kho dang he mo loi giat' (Employment for the youth in Hanoi - a difficult proble m waiting for a solution). Nhan Dan, 7 June 1993 . National Institute for Urban and Rural Planning. Ministry of Construction, Data Book: Hanoi City (Hanoi : 1992), p. 49. Tran Quoc Vuong and Vu Tuan San. Ha Noi nghin xua (Thousand Year Old Hanoi) (Hanoi : So Van hoa Tong tin Ha Noi , 1975 ), p. 161 : Nguyen Vinh Phuc and Tran Huy Ba. Duong Pho Ha Noi (Hanoi Streets) (Hanoi : Nha Xuat Ban Ha Noi , 1979), pp. 121-24, 311-12. Andre Masson. The Transformation of Hanoi, 1873-1888, translated by Jack A. Yaeger, edited by Daniel F. Doeppers, Wisconsin Papers on Southeast Asia No. 8 (Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1983), p. 6. Dinh Gia Khanh and Tran Tien , eds, Dia Chi Van Hoa Dan Gian Than g Long - Dong Do - Ha Noi (Gazetteer of Hanoi) (Hanoi : So Van hoa va thong tin, 1991). p. II. William Turley, "Urbanization in War: Hanoi , 1946-1973". Pacific Affairs (1976): 373 . Samuel Baron, "The Description of Tonqueen'', in A Collection uf Voyag es and Travels , Vol. VI (London: A. and W. Churchill. 1732). p. 3. Nguyen Vinh Phuc and Tran Huy Ba. op. cit. . p. _176. Nguyen Vinh Phuc and Tran Huy Ba. op. cit.. p. 188. Nguyen Vinh Pbuc and Tran Huy Ba, op. cit., pp. 135-39. Interview with Prof. Dao The Tuan. on 2 September 1993. interview with Dong Minh Son on 13 August 1993. Interviews with Dong Minh Son, and Trinh Hong Trien , Deputy Chief Architect, Hanoi People 's Committee. on 13 August 1993.

IV

Socio-economic Characteristics of the Migrants

Geography of Movement An interesting piece of data from Table 4.1 indicates that 16 per cent of the respondent s actually come from other urban areas rather than the countryside . Thi s dovetails with our knowledge of urban centres in the Red River Delta. These centres are underdeveloped and offer very little job opportunities and so it is not surprising that they should also be the source of some migrants seeking better prospects. However. this reality also points to dire implications for Hanoi where the urban drift is concerned. It means that most of the traffic would head for Hanoi under present circumstances because there are no worthwhile alternatives as destinations. On the other hand, it was reported that Vietnam experienced an overall increase in urban population in recent years. attributed to the increase in number of thanh pho (cities). thi xa (town) and thi tran (district towns). A policy of upgrading district towns to towns, and reclassifying communes to district towns, in particular. has "the effect .. . to increase the proportion of urban population in many provinces" . This increase alone caused the proportion of population in this category to increase from 21 .8 per cent in 1979 to 27.3 per cent in 1989. 1 In other words, the increase in population in the towns and district towns was largely due to the reclassification of the former rural areas, rather than to the development of those areas. TABLE 4 .1: RESPONDENTS ' PLACES OF RESIDENCE BEFORE MOVlNG TO HANOI Place of residence

Respondents

16

%

8 7

City Town District town Countryside

2 168

84

Total

200

100

14

18

l

SOCI

ECONOMlC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MlGRANTS

/9

Altb ugh it i a goal of the government to develop the medium and mall citi and towns, there ults have yet to be een. Until uch time a this programme take off, Hanoi will be the de tination of any substantial popul tion movement in the north and central region . TABLE 4.2: RESPONDE NTS' PLACES OF DEPARTUR E

Place of departure NamHa ThanhH Ha Bac HaTa

Respondents

61 20 36 16 12 49 6

31 10 18

200

100

•

Vinh Phu Hai Hung Otherpro inces Total

%

8

6 25 3

ngtn would be mu h h1 gher tn

4.3: PORTER AT DONG XUAN MARKET AND llfEIR PLA

TAB

%

of departure

Pl

Hai Hu am Ha Ha Tay

6.6 7 6

.9 7.77

6

7.77

4

5.1

3.85

100

7

TABL PI

'l

of ckpanure

32 .5 3

NamH HaTa 6

Thanh H a Thai Binh

..

Hai Hung Quao Binh

4

Tou.l

40

I

15 10 10 2.5

100

20

PEASANTS ON THE MOVE

Tables 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4 confirm that most of the migrant workers in Hanoi come from the surrounding provinces, and they also seem to indicate that in some instances, choice of profession by these migrants is linked to geography. This has been confirmed by surveys done by other researchers. Certain occupations such as cyclo riders and scavengers seem to be predominantly held by people from Nam Ha province, particularly the Xuan Thuy district. 2 About 48 per cent of scavengers and junk buyers in Hanoi were from Nam Ha, among whom most came from Xuan Thuy, according to DiGregorio's survey in Hanoi in August 1992. Migrants from Nam Ha province as a whole seem to be active in almost every occupation that is accessible (Table 5.2a, p. 43). A visit by the author to Xuan Tbuy district made closer examination possible. It showed that within Xuan Thuy, the migrants mainly came from villages in the northwest of the district (the former Xuan Truong district), while villagers living along the coastal area tend to migrate less to Hanoi. 3 Freelance workers at the labour markets, on the other hand, tend to be mainly from Thanh Hoa province, particularly Quang Xuong district. 4 While a village called Quang Thai has only 20 people (the least) at the labour market of Nga Tu So. other villages could have hundreds of migrants from their own population there. 5 Thanh Hoa also seems to have provided Hanoi with the largest number of beggars, as a survey of street children showed. 6 Our survey also showed that a large percentage of construction workers in Hanoi were from Ha Bac province (Table 5.2a). Noi Duy, a village in Tien Son district, Ha Bac province, may have played an important role in it. This village has been famous for construction since the nineteenth century, and has always sent construction workers all over north Vietnam since. During the last two years they developed so well that a group of them actually went 7 south to compete with construction teams in Da Nang. Half of the 2,000 main breadwinners in the village were skilled workers doing construction all over the north. In addition. they often employed 3,000 to 5,000 peasants from the nearby villages as construction labourers, more than half of whom work in Hanoi. While Table 5.2a indicates that 34 out of 36 people from Ha Bac were construction workers, none of the samples taken on shoulder pole traders and porters at Dong Xuan market came from Ha Bac. Another large group of cyclo riders in Hanoi seems to have come from Dan Phuong district, Ha Tay province. Our small rudimentary survey did not capture this, but an interview with a cyclo rider from the district revealed that from Phuong Dinh village of this district alone, 300 people were riding cyclos in Hanoi. 8 As we have seen elsewhere in this study, women shoulder pole traders mainly came from Ung Hoa and Phu Xuyen districts, Ha Tay province, and porters at Dong Xuan market from Chau Giang district, Hai Duong province. Village connection and chain migration provide the

SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MlGRANTS

2/

dynamics for the link hetween native places and occupations . Chain migration refer to that outcome whereby a migrant grows familiar with a place and is able to facilitate the arrival of relatives or friends from the village who want to join him . An overall picture of the spontaneous population move in Hanoi region perhaps can be summarized in the following manner. The most frequent emigration to Hanoi is over a hort di tance fr m certain geographically adjacent region . particularly from the outheastem direction. In terms of geographical distrihution . Nam Ha . Hai Hung. and Ha Bac are the three province" of north Vietnam that have large number of migrant coming in; Ha Ta . comes econd . and followed by a few from Vinh Phu . A remarkable phenomenon is Thanh Hoa. a pro\'ince regarded a being in central Vietnam rather than northern. wh1 h als accounts for a fairly high percentage of the migrant s . Ver_ few migrants come from other provinces in north ietnam . The surve on treet hildren in Ma 1993, conducted by the Institute of Sociolog_. Nati nat enter of S cial ciences of Vietnam. confirm. the tendenc we b erved. Am ng the 472 amples. 24 per cent came from Thanh Hoa . 20 per cent fT m Hai Hung, and 14.8 per cent from Ha Nam Ninh .Q nl _ 7.6 per nt came fr m northern pro inces (Bac Thai. n ). and I . per cent came from the Tu . en Quang . and Hoang Lien 10 south . However. as mentioned in hapter One. population movement in Vietnam i. multi -directi o nal and the i ibly dramatic impact of pea ant crowding into a c it ·hould n t be o ere timated a a predominant feature of dome ti migration over-riding all other m ement . Neither hould the Jure f a big city drawing all and iew d it he impli ti all uch a Bac Thai. sundry. or instan e. provin e with mineral re our e Tu ye n Quang. Ye n Bai and Ha Giang have been de tination rather than sources of migration . Tw pr in e . Lang on and Quang Ninh. on the f migration traffic . mainly Smo-Vietname b rder are th r de tination to L·apit.alize n the border area . The region where minoritie live uch entral Highland · al so attract a~ Cao Ban g and Sun La a well a the people . 11 Where mo e ment in the Red Ri er delta i c n emed, the intere ·ting pheno menon of Thai Binh province merit di cu i n. Thai Binh i - under hea vy population pre · ure. and wa de ribed by a Fren h cholar in the I 1!30!-. a "more den~el populated than the mo t indu trial region s of Europe". 12 The p pulation den ity of Thai Binh follow after urban Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Yet it ha hown a urpri ingly low migration rate to Hanoi according to everal ource , including our survey. The inconvenience of travelling mtght be one rea on : it i aid that Vietnam ha two "i land pro ince ". Ben Tre province in the outh, and Thai Binh province in the north . Thi i becau se Thai Binh people cannot go anywhere without

22

p

le n l

N rth . on ·tru ti n lean land l I k fler in lh ir field . r app ared right in th • h

Economi

baract ri ti

illage . 1 ~

of tb Mi r nts

mi runt w th ir in m .

23

SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MIGRANTS

TABLE 4.5 : RESPONDENTS' FAMiLY SIZE AND LABOURERS lN THE HOUSEHOLD No. of family members

Respondents

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10+ Total

0 6 20 44

53 38 25 8 3 3 200

%

0 3 110 22 26.5 19 12.5 4 1.5 1.5 100

No. of labourers

Respondents

%

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10+

13 104 42 19 12 8 0 0 0 0

6.5 52 21 9.5 6 4 0 0 0 0

Total

200

100

TABLE 4.6 : RESPONDENTS ' FAMiLY ROLE Role in family

Re s ponden~s

%

Head of the family Main breadwinner Complementary labourer Did not work as labourer before No answer

85 157 21 0 2

42.5 78.5 10.5 0

TotaJ

265

NOTE: Many heads of familie at the same time are al so the breadwinners .

made them more ready to seek opportunities to improve their economic situations. Another 16 per cent of the migrants had some sideline productions that were not substantial enough to improve their economic situation . An important figure which does not appear here is that most of the families of the respondents were not owners of garden land or ponds . Garden Land (vuon) and ponds (ao) are important sources of income for rural families. A survey on rural income s tratification by the Ministry of Agriculture showed that while the average residential area and garden land owned by a rich household was 791.5 square metres in Nam Ha, that of a poor household in the same province was only 414 square metres. 17 Our survey (Table 4.8) found that while the monthly income of a family which

24

PEASANTS ON TI-lE MOVE

TABLE 4.7: MAIN OCCUPATIONS OP RESPONDENTS BEFORE MOVING Respondents

%

Paddy farmers Specialized occupations Paddy farm & sideline productions Sideline productions & paddy farming No answer

140 15 32 12

70

Total

200

Main occupation

7.5

16 6 0.5

I

100

TABLE 4 .8: RICE FIELD AND GARDEN LAND SlZES OF RESPONDENTS Areas (sao J Below 2 Between 2-4 Berween 4- 6 Between 6- 8 Betwee n 9- 10 More than 10 Total

Rice field owners

Garden land owners

~4

192

64 63 24 II 4

3

200

200

I 2

owned 5 sao of rice field was as low as 80,000 dong. the income of a family which owned only I sao of garde n land was I00,000 dong. 18 Garden land is much better land than paddy fields . It is those who do not own garden land and are poor who comprise the majority of the migrants although the correlation betwee n poverty and the urge to migrate i not a straightforward one as the nex t section will argue. Ju st how poor are these migrant ? To answer that question. it is essential to understand what constitute poverty in the whole of Vietnam. Although the living standards of Vietnamese peasants have generally increased in the last five years. a large percentage of them remain poor: 8-10 per cent deprived , 20 per cent poor, 20-30 per cent relatively poor. 30-40 per cent average, and I0 per cent rich in 1993.'QLn the first three categories the north and central areas are all 3-11 per cent higher than those in the south.20 The average monthly income of one labourer in the countryside is 20.000-21,000 dong ,21 according to Nang Dan VietNam (Journal of Vietnamese Peasantry), while according to the Ministry of Labour, the structure of income utilization for minimum necessities is 40,000 dong (40 kilograms unmilled rice) per capita monthly . 2 ~ Another set of figures from Nang Dan VietNam said that

SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MIGRANTS

25

TABLE 4.9: HOUSEHOLD MONTHLY INCOME OF RESPONDENTS BEFORE MOVING TO HANOI Monthly income Below 30,000 30,000-40.000 40,000-50.000 50.000-60.000 60.000-70.000 70,000-80,000 80,000-90.000 90,000-100.000 100.000-150,000 150.000 & above Total

Respondents

%

8 6 10 16

4 3 5 8

II II

5.5 5 .5

8 15

4 7.5 14 43.5

28 87 200

100

average monthly income of about 400 households in Binh Son district, Vinh Phu province was on ly 17,000 dong (eq uals 17 kilograms unmilled rice in 1993, and US$1.7 ) a month. 23 It is noticeable, therefore, that 43 .5 per cent of our respondents ' household monthl y income was over 150,000 dong (Table 4.9). Table 4.5 indicates that 52 per cent of the respondents have two labourers in the family, which usuaJJy means a family with two to three children, and owning three to four sao of rice land . If thi s is the case, then the pre-migration monthly income of our sample of migrants was considerably higher than the average income of Vietnamese peasants. We noticed elsewhere in this study that 31 per cent of the respondents in our survey came from Nam Ha province, most of whom originated from Xuan Thuy district. According to the district 's Vice-Chairman who surveyed 300 households on their monthl y incomes in December 1992, the average was 98,000 dongY Xuan Thuy is the main source for cyclo riders in Hanoi, and cyclo riding is not a cheap occupation to start with. To be able to ride a cyclo immediately upon arrival, a peasant usually has to bring 400,000 to 500,000 dong (US$40-50), borrow another 200,000 to 300,000 dong from his friend s in Hanoi, buy a cyclo, then start working. 25 The sum of US$50 is about half of the annual income of an ordinary family and therefore not a small amount of money. Other occupations such as construction workers need some money to start as well . On the other hand, the economic situation of the migrants in their rural villages is hardly enough for them to invest in agricultural production . According to Nhan Dan , some (it did not state how many) rich rural

26

PEASANTS ON THE MOVE

TABLE 4.10: AGE GROUP AND SEX OF RESPONDENTS Age group 19 and below 20-24 25-29 30-34 35- 39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64 65 and above Total

Total

Male

%

Female

%

25 44 40 38 28 1"5 3 3 2 0 2

20 41 29 29 19 12 3 3 2 0 0

10 20.5 14.5 14.5 9.5 6 1.5 1.5

5 3

2.5 1.5 5.5 4.5 4.5 1.5 0 0 0 0

200

158

II

0 0

9 9 3 0 0 0 0 2

79

42

I

21

households in northern and southern Vietnam (Hoa Binh, Ha Bac. Nam Ha. Thanh Hoa, Binh Dinh, Dac Lac. Tien Giang and Dong Thap) had invested in farm machinery. with average capital of five million dong (about US$500) per household .26 It seems therefore that migrants at present are neither the poorest nor the richest in the countryside. If we use the categories set by the Ministry of Labour, then most of our respondents are between the group of "relative poor" and those just above "average".

Social Characteristics of the Migrants The survey results showed that males in the age group of 20 to 24 had the largest number of migrants, with males aged below 25 comprising 30.5 per cent of the sample (Table 4 . 10). This makes the age of our respondents remarkably higher than their counterparts in other Southeast Asian countries. Surveys carried out in Bangkok in 1977 showed that the proportion of migrants under age 25 were as high as 62. 1 per cent. 27 Other samples taken from migrants in five cities in Indonesia and Philippines between 1982 and 1983 also gave the proportion of the under 25 age group as ranging from 56.5 per cent to 84.6 per cent. 28 lnterestingly, a survey conducted in West Java in 1973 of temporary migrants showed a similar age structure to that of Hanoi, where the age groups from 25 to 39 made up the largest proportion. 29 Several factors may contribute to this. First, since rural-urban migration in the Hanoi region is still seasonal or temporary in nature, many heads of households do not hesitate to move, and this is verified in Table 4 .6. Second, in 1991, Vietnam demobilized 600,000 soldiers from its armed forces, 30 and

SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHARACfERISTICS OF THE MIGRANTS

27

TABLE 4 .11 : MARITAL STATUS OF RESPONDENTS Marital status Married Never married Widow or widower

Respondents

113

79 7

56.5 39.5

3.5 0 .5

Divorced

Total

%

200

100

many of them joined the flow to the cities, which was something observed in our interviews. There are also differences in socio-cultural values between Viemam and other Southeast Asian countries on migration. Young men, it is said, are encouraged to go merantau (voluntary migration), as a common practice, among the Minangkebau of West Sumaua and the Achehnese, according to Mochtar Nairn . This certainly results in a high percentage of young males moving to cities in some ·regions in lndonesia. 3 1 There might be another factor. Women 's participation in wartime activities and the lack of marriage opportunities might have caused a decrease in the fertility rate in north Vietnam in the late 1960s. Daniel Goodkind notice that there were over 150,000 'missing" in the cohort of children that would have been born between 1965 and 1969, from the census of 1979 and I 989_3! The under-representation of the below 25 age group in our survey might have been a manifestation of this phenomenon. Table 4.1 1 shows that 56.5 per cent were married, which contrasts sharply with the high percentage (59 per cent to 71 .4 per cent) of singles in the case of migrants in Indonesia and the Philippines.n Bangkok also observed a similar rate of 71 .2 per cent of male and 65.6 per cent female migrants being single.l-4 Of course, this is likely to be related to the fac t that the migrants in Vietnam tend to be more mature in age and therefore would tend to be already married. Although female migrants were relatively under-represented in this smrvey's sample, it should be noted that a large percentage of workers in certain occupations are women. The survey by DiGregorio (1993), for example. suggested that 60 per cent of scavengers and junks buyers in Hanoi in 1992 were women migrants. 3 ~ Kitchen bands might have a higher percentage of women. Another occupation, the shoulder pole trader, is almost entirely a female migrant occupation in Hanoi. In general, it appears that females comprise at least 30 per cent of migrants in Hanoi . Tbjs is verified by a survey done by the Ministry of Labour on beggars in Hanoi in 1992. In the 376-str.ong sample, 71 per cent

28

PEASANTS ON THE MOVE

TABLE 4.12: EDUCATIONAL LEVEL OP RESPONDENTS Educational level

Respondents

0

%

0

Never attended school Primary school 1-4 years 5- 7 years Secondary school 8- 12 years

15 Ill 74

37

Total

200

100

7.5 55 .5

were male; 29 per cent were female; 92 per cent of the totaJ came from the countryside; their age were between 18 and 45 ; the e character1 tics coincide with the age group and the ex ratio of the migrants in our ample.36 Another survey on street children by the ln titute of Sociology in Hanoi in May I 993 showed a imilar pattern. According to thi urvey with a ample size of 472, 73 .7 per cent were male, and 26.3 per cent were female .n Considering that there are large number of boulder pole traders, scavengers, and kitchen hands (which are all women-dominated jobs), and women are also involved in other work uch a con truction and portering, a higher percentage of women migrant than reported in the amples of beggars and street children should be expected. According to Vietnam' population cen u in 1989, the average percentage of Vietnamese rural population who have had orne chooling was 91.48, and in the age group from 19 to 45 .J8 Table 4 . 12 hows all migrants have been to chool. which would eem to uggest that the illiterates tend not to migrate. The educational level of our ample was al o comparable to the educational level of the labour force in Hanoi. According to Data Book: Hanoi City, in 1989 43 .95 per cent of the labour in the four districts of Hanoi had primary education, and 33.8 per cent had secondary education.39 So the proportion of those who had secondary education was higher than that of Hanoi's labour force although predictably none of the rural migrants had tertiary education, a was the ca e with Hanoi · workforce. This educational level is also much higher than that of the pedicab drivers in Indonesia in the late 1970s. In the latter, which was based on a 250-strong sample, 14.8 per cent had never attended school, and 38.8 per cent did not finish primary school, and only 5.6 per cent finished secondary school. 40 The educational level again confirms that the migrant are not the poorest group in the countryside. A survey by the Ministry of Agriculture of nine Vietnamese provinces showed that 24.3 per cent of the head of the poor

SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MIGRANTS

29

TABLE 4.13 : NUMBER OF MOVES MADE BY THE RESPONDENTS %

Number of moves

Respondents

1 2 3 4 5

94 41 33 20

47 20.5 16.5

12

6

Total

200

100

10

households were illiterate. In another eight provinces, the rate was even higher at 28.8 per cent. 41 A comparative figure can be derived from the survey on beggars in Hanoi, which showed that 26.1 per cent of beggars were illiterate. 42 Migration History The fact that 47 per cent of migrants in our sample were on their first move (Table 4.13), and 53.2 per cent (Table 4.14) of them chose Hanoi as their destination, indicated that rural-urban migration was still a relatively new phenomenon, and that Hanoi ranked first as a destination in the Red River delta. Although there are smaller cities closer to home for some of the migrants, such as Thanh Hoa and Vinh to peasants from Thanh Hoa and Nghe An, and Nam Dinh to those from Nam Ha, peasants in the Red River delta seem to prefer going directly to Hanoi, instead of taking a step approach of first migrating from village to smaller city and then to capital city, as suggested by migration theory and the experience of some other countries. Table 4.14 shows undoubtedly that Hanoi was the first choice of destination to the sample migrants . At the same time, the figures also demonstrate that there was no clear second choice. The process of urbanization in Hai Phong, the second largest metropolitan centre in this region, is relevant here. In contrast with its status during the French colonial period as the second largest city in north Vietnam and one of the three leading cities in Vietnam, the role of Hai Phong seems to have diminished over the past 40 years. This is partly due to the fact that it was a port city almost solely oriented to commerce with France, which came to an end once the colonial connection was severed. 43 The lack of urban growth in Haiphong becomes more evident if we compare its population expansion with that of Hanoi, which was by no means fast in the past 40

30

PEASANTS ON THE MOVE

TABLE 4.14: FREQUENCY OF RESPONDENTS' PREVIOUS MOVES TO CITIES AND PROVlNCES Places of moves

Frequency

%

4

53.23 7.53 7.53 4.3 4.3 3.76 2.69 2.42 1.88 1.88 1.61 1.34 1.34 1.08 1.08 1.08

4

1.08

5

1.34

Hanoi Ha Giang Tuyen Quang Lang Son Ha Bac Cao Bang Quang Nam -Da Nang Nam Ha Hoa Binh Quang Ninh Son La Lao Cai Yen Bru HaiPhong Hai Hung Nghe An Vinh Phu Other provinces

198 28 28 16 16

Total

372

14

10 9 7 7

6 5 5 4 4

100

years. In 1931 . the populatjon of Hanoi was 128.000. only slightly larger than Haiphong's 124.000.""' In 1979, Hanoi's population was 897.500. while that of Haiphong was a mere 385.210. According to the cen us of 1989, Haiphong even lost some 33,000 of its population during the years between 1979 and 1989 . ~ It is not surpri ing. therefore , that Table 4. 14 shows only 1.08 per cent of the previous moves by mjgrants were made to Haiphong. Nam Dinh, the third largest city in north Vietnam, is perhaps as underdeveloped as Haiphong as an intermeruate city in the past 40 years, and currently faces even more severe economic problems than Haiphong. As the centre of the textile industry in the north. it has faced serious competition from smuggled clothes and textiles from China since 1989. Many workers became underemployed or unemployed, and so the industry could not recruit new workers from the region. People in Nam Dinh complain that the city bas been left to decay, and cite as evidence the trans- Vietnam railway which will move from Hanoi to Ninh Binh. bypassing Nam Dinh to the south. It is also said that Nam Dinh has become so negligible that people in Thai Binh are planning to build a bridge across to Hung Yen, rather than travel via Nam 4

SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MIGRANTS

31

TABLE 4 .15: RESPONDENTS WHO OBTAINED PERMISSION BEFORE MOVING Registered

Respondents

%

Yes

72

36

No

128

64

Total

200

100

Dinh to reach Hanoi. 46 The Jack of another economica1ly attractive metropolitan centre in the region suggests that Hanoi wi11 be on the receiving end of its urban drift. Aside from the overwhelming attraction of a metropolitan centre like Hanoi, Table 4.14 also suggests that other places scattered throughout the north and central regions also received some influx. Migration to Ha Giang, Tuyen Quang, Yen Bai and other northern provinces were mainly to work in the mining sites. Those who went to Nghe An first were looking for ruby. It was said that 19,000 people engaged in digging for ruby, in one site in Nghe An alone.47

Permission and Registration Moving to a new place to ljve and work in Vietnam albeit temporarily still requires the formality of registration, and implied in this process is the permjssion of the state. As Table 4.15 shows, only one in three of our 200 respondents asked permission from their local administrations, and an even smaller percentage registered with Hanoi administration when they arrived. A Ministry of Labour survey on spontaneous migrants in Hanoi and Haiphong, including businessmen, traders and other technical workers, suggested a similar rate. According to this survey, 68.7 per cent of respondents left their native places without asking for permission. In Hanoi alone, 72.8 per cent of the respondents did not register with the Hanoi admirustration upon arrival. 48 Efforts have been made by Hanoi police to ensure registration. For the cycJo riders, the police appoints one person to be the head of a group, which usually comprises J5 cycle riders or more renting the same room and usual.ly from the same village or nearby villages. Trus leader's duties would include the following: • •

get the newcomers registered for temporary residence, and others who share the same room to re-register every six months; make sure that all the cycle riders apply for legal licences for their

32

PEASANTS ON THE MOVE

TABLE 4. 16: THE A1TITUDE Of RESPONDENTS' LOCAL ADMINISTRATIONS TOWARDS MIGRATION

Respondents

•

Encouraging Di courag1ng lndifferent Again t Don ·! know Not an wered

45

Total

73

3 20

0 5 0

cyclos. and report the registration number of the vehicle to the police: and if a cyclo rider gets into trouble and flees. the leader has to find him. 4q

Where con truction workers are concerned in Hanoi. theoretically. those who hire the construction team are to take care of the registration. This is the ~a rne for people doing gold panning in the mountainous areas : those who hire panners have the responsibility of making sure the registration is done according to the rule .~0 It i. interesting that among the 73 respondents who did apply for permi ., ion to leave. close to two-thirds of them found their local admini strations encouraging towards their leaving (Table 4 . 16). The attitude of local official s do make a difference, if we look at the case of Noi Duy village in Ha Bac province. the one famous for construction work. All the official are either totally for. or actively organizing, their villagers to form construction teams and move out as much as possible . The person who used to be secretary of the Party branch became the manager of one construction company, while other officials were all in charge of one department or another in the company. It has become in their interest to have peasants in their village become migrant construction workers. Some other officials might not be directly involved in organizing the migration but they would look at the issue in a rather positive way. Vu Van Tieu , Vice-Chairman of Xuan Thuy district, Nam Ha province. gave the official e timate of 17,000 peasants - about 5 per cent of the total population in the district - constantly away doing various works in Hanoi and other provinces. "If on the average, one person brings 500,000 dong (US$50), then 17,000 would bring 85 ty (US$850,000) to the families in the di trict. I have no objection to it". he said."

SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF 11iE MIGRANTS

33

TABLE 4.17: RESPONDENTS' MAIN REASONS · FOR LEAVING THE ORIGINAL PLACES

Reasons

Respondents

Low income

170

Lack of land Infertile land Land was sold Underemployment Problems with local authority Discord within family City attraction

54 4 151

I 1 1

Others

Total

424

This sympathetic attitude at the source of the migration extends to almost anything related to the population movement. According to infonnation provided by the Bus Station in the southern part of Hanoi (Ben xe phia nam), among the 120 buses going back and forth between Hanoi and all the provinces in the country, 30 buses were owned by people from Xuan Thuy and Hai Hau districts of Nam Ha province, the two remarkably active districts on migration. There were daily buses running between Hanoi and the two districts with petty traders the main passengers. 52 The mobility of the peasants in the region has played a decisive role in the development of transportation, and this in turn facilitates the mobility. This also demonstrates that when rapid social changes take place, those who are more open-minded find themselves in a better position to adapt to this new environment and make use of the new possibilities.

Reasons for Leaving It was remarkable that only one respondent in our survey chose "city attraction" as the reason for leaving his village (Table 4.17). In interviews, however, respondents sometimes answered that they liked staying in Hanoi because it had electricity. Eleven million households were reportedly living in the rural areas in 1991, which was 80 per cent of the total population. However, a mere 10 per cent of the total electricity generated was provided to this 80 per cent of the population. 53 The two most cited reasons for moving to Hanoi were "underemployment" and "low income" and they were probably inter-related. The market rate offered to migrant labourers illustrates their desperation for work. For instance, some migrants would accept payment of 2,000 dong

..

34

PEASANTS ON THE MOVE

TABLE 4. 18: RESPONDENTS ' MAIN PURPOSES FOR MOVING TO HANOI Respondents

%

Get a temporary job Get a long-term job Get a permanent job Get married here Others

101 60 38 2 4

49.75 29.56 18.72 0.99 1.97

Total

203

Purposes

100

(US$20¢) for unloading one truck of coal , and 2,500 to 3,000 dong for unl o adin g one ton of cement (20 sacks ). Indeed Table · 4.18 shows overwhelmingly that peasants migrated primarily for work purposes. Process of Migration Tables 4. 19 to 4.21 show clearly how the process of migration works. Among th e 2 12 re sponde nts. 90 .09 per cent received information about job possibilities in Hanoi from their friends and relatives, compared to 1.89 per ce nt who got information from the mass media. When coming to Hanoi, 46 .89 per cent of the respondents came with friends from their villages, (sometimes with up to 60 villagers coming together) and 18.18 per cent came with their relatives, and 31 .58 per cent came alone. This is similar to the case of migration in West Java in the 1970s studied by Hugo, where he found th at one- third of the migrants travelled to Jakarta alone, 16.5 per cent travelled with their kinsmen. and most travelled with their friends from the village, concluding that, "Thus the most important linkages for temporary migrants are not so much with kinsmen who have settled in the city but with fell ow temporar y migrants" .54 From Table 4 .2 1, it is clear that the government and social organizations do not play any role when it comes to providing assistance in job seeking.55 About 80 per cent of the respondents received help from their own networks of family and friends . All these show th at experienced migrants are the principal and most trusted sources of help for the newcomers. These networks seem to be direct extensions of the traditional ties in villages. The tran sition from a routine country life to the hustle and bustle of city life holds many uncertainties. beginning with finding a place to sleep at night. Some of these peasants end up sleeping in the open air. These personal adjustment problems for the migrant also become part of the larger problems of the community in providing enough public facilities like water and electricity.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHA RACTER ISTICS OF THE MIGRANTS

35

TABLE 4.19: RESPONDENTS' FORM OF MOVING TO HA NOI Respondent s

%

Came alone Came with friends

66

31.58

98

46 .89

Came with relatives Came w ith recruting people

38

18 . 1

Form of moving

Others No answer

I

0 .48

::!

0 .96 1.91

4

100

209

Total

T AB LE 4 .20: RESPONDENTS ' SOURCES OF INFORMATION ABOUT JOB POSSIBILITI ES IN HANOI Reasons From frie nds From relatives From mass media Rec ruited Others

Responden ts 148

69.8 1

43

20.28

4 5

1.89 2.36

12

5.66

212

Total

%

100

TABLE 4 .21 : RESPONDENTS' ASS ISTANCE IN JOB -SEEKING Assistance from A government organi zati on A social organizati on

Respondents

o/c

0

0

0

()

A private agency Famil y ties

4

1.94

47

Friends

Ill

22.82 53.88

Nobody

43

20.87

I

0.49

Others Total

206

100

Solutions to these problems so far have rested on traditional communal ties . Migrants deal with the challenges of city life not so much by integrating themselves into the city community, but by turning to their little enclaves of friends and relatives from the sa me village , perhaps even more so than if they were back home in the village. According to a cyclo rider, when a

36

PEASANTS ON THE MOVE TABLE 4 .22: TIME TAKEN BY RESPONDENTS TO fiND THEIR FIRST JOB IN HANOl Respondents

%

Less than l wee lwee to le __ than I month 1 to le s than 3 montb 3 to 6 month

J73 23

S6.5

4

2

0

0

Total

200

100

Waiting period

U.5

peasant decided thai be wanted to earn hi Jivi11g riding a cyclo in Hanoi , he would u ually borrow 200,000 to 300 000 dong as capitaL Lf he borrowed it in the viUage, he had to pay 10-15 per cent intere t, but no interest would be charged if he borrowed the money from hi village mates in Hanoi.~ This factor alone ugge ts that tho e who have relative or friend in Hanoi who are cyclo riders enjoy a deci ive financial advantage over those who do not po e s the connection . Thi i perbap why many cydo riders claimed that among I 0,000 cyclo rider ln Hanoi, two-thjrds of them were from Xuan Thuy district, Nam Ha province. Thi al o helps to explain lhe regional specialization in occupation among the migrant in Hanoi. Table 4.22 shows a high 86.5 per cent of there pondents frnding work within the fir t week of their a¢val. Thi is a remarkable achievement of the many exi ting migration network in Hanoi. In Bangkok in 1977, the figures were 55 per cent for males and 75 per cent for female migrants. Almost 85 per cent of both sexes were employed within a. month. 1 Certajnly some jobs in Hanoi are pre-arranged, uch as construction work. An aspiring cyclo rider would also make some arrangement before arrival by writing to fellow villagers already on the job in Hanoi to find him a vehicle to buy. By the time the peasant appears in Hanoi, a cyclo is already there waiting for him. His village mate would then guide him for several days to famjliarize him with the city. Within a week, the peasant is able to make a living riding a cyclo on his own. Our survey shows that 27.5 per cent of the respondents had brought friends or relatives to Hanoi , with each averaging 5.84 persons. Notes I. 2.

General Statistical Office, Detailed Analysis of Sample Results on Vietnam Population Census (Hanoi: 1991), p. 39. It was said that in. the 1930s, a Mr Nam Diem. native of Xuan Thuy. was promoted to be director of the Sanitation Company (cong ry ve sinh), wbicb resulted in rapid recruitment of his village mates. See Michael DiGregorio,

SOClO-ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MIGRANTS

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8. 9.

10. 11 .

12.

13.

37

"Continuity. Change and Emerging Issues in Solid Waste Management in Hanoi. Vietnam'', in Human Ecology in Vietnam. edjted by Le Trong Cue and A .T. Rambo (Honolulu : East-West Center. forthcoming) . I am grateful to Mr. Vu Van Tieu. Vice Chairman of Xuan Thuy district. Nam Ha province. for receiving Prof. Stephanie Fahey and my se lf on 16 September 1993. But people from this village seem to have other work to do . It was said that 60 per cent to 70 per cent of the inhabitants of some hamlets in the village came to Hanoi as beggars. See Tran Chien. "Ha Thanh Cai bang" (Gang of beggars in Hanoi ). HaNoi Moi. 12 September 1992. p. 2. ''Thuc trang va huong giai quyet viec nguoi tinh ngoai tim vieC' o Ha Nni " (The ituation about and solutions for olving the problem of people coming from other provi nces eeking employment in Hanoi). Ha Noi Moi. 16 April 1993. Nguyen Thj Van Anh. "Bao cao nghien cuu khan sat tinh trang Ire em lan g thang tren dia ban Ha Noi'' (Report on the survey on the situation of the street children in Hanoi ). paper presented at a seminar. In titute of Sociology, Hanoi. Augu t 1993. It was rud that Da Nang construction teams are one and a half times more expen ive than tho e of Noi Duy. On the other hand , Da Nang team s are usuall y good at detail . while Noi Duy i fast but not good enough. Competition was strong for a whi le until an agreement was made be tween the con truction team from Ha Bac and those fro m Da Nang: the former's territory is the 16 province from north of Thanh Hoa. and that of Da Nang is from the outh of Thanh Hoa. Interview with Nguyen The Chuong. the former Branch Secretary of the Part y in Noi Duy. pre ent Manager of the No . I Construction Company of Noi Duy. II August 1993. This might not be the understanding of Da Nang construction companies. I was informed by Dr David Marr that construction team from Da Nang have been quite active in both Hanoi and Haiphong . interview with Nguyen Van Xuat. a cyclo rider from the village who is taying in a lodging hou e in Giang Yo. on II Augu t 1993 . Ha Nam Ninh province was divided into three provinces of Ha Tay, Nam Ha and Ninh Binh in 1990, but people till use Ha Nam Ninh for the region. such as this case tudy by ocial cienti sts in 1993. Nguyen Thj Van Anh , op. cit .. p. I 0. Pham Do Nhat Tan. ''Di dan xay dung cac vun~: kinh te moi: Thanh lutt , van de va giai phap" (Resettl e ment of population in New Economic Zones: Achievements. problem and solutions), in Sympo.\'ium on Social Policies and Residence, Tra vel and Traffic Safety in Market Mechanism (Hanoi: Ministry of Interior, 1993), p. 65 . Andre Dumare t, Ln Fonntion de Classes Sociales en pays Annamite (Lyon : lmprimarie P. Ferreol, 1935) , p. 60. Quoted from Martin J. Murray, The Development of Capitalism in Co lonial Indochina ( 1870-1940) (Berkeley : University Of Californja Pre s, 1980), pp. 227- 28. Interview with Dr Quach Nghjem, Executive Director, Cent.er of Population, Environment and Rural Development, on 7 September 1993 .

38 14.

15 .

16.

17 .

I R.

19.

20.

21 . 22 . 23 . 24.

25.

PEASANTS ON THE MOVE

Interviews conducted under the programme of a follow-up research of the Population Program. East- West Center. with Dr Peter Xenos, to officials from the Office of Science and Technology. and Land Management Bureau. Thai Binh, on 23 August 1993. All the information about Noi Duy is from the interview with Nguyen The Chuong. introduced above. Nguyen Van Tuong. Vice-Chairman of the Village Committee and Administrator of Noi Duy Construction Company No . I. and Nguyen Van Hanh. Chairman of Noi Duy village. on II August 1993 . The World Bank. Thailand: Rural Growth and Employment (Washington. D.C. : 198J). p. 96. Nguyen Van Tiem . ed .. Giau Nxheo Iron~ Non~ Thon Hi en Nay (The rich and poor in today 's countryside) IHanoi : Nong Nghiep. 1993). pp. 102- 03 . .126--27. Questionnaire of Le Trong from Quang Hop village . Quang Xuong district. Thanh Hoa province. and Bui Ngu Bac from Dang Thanh village. Gia Luong district. Ha Bal province . Both are on the lahour market in Giang Vo . "Bai loan viec lam '' flfiiiJ.!. thon trrmg thoi mo cua" /Issues of employment during a time of open door policy). !.tw /)on~ Chu Nhat. 30 May 1993 . See Nguyen Thi Ho.mg and Nguyen Van Thieu. "Poverty Status in Vietnam". unpublished paper. Mini stry of Labour. Invalids and Social Affairs. 1993. pp. 8-9. This ~~ a detailed report giving the following categories: Chronil se\'ere hunger I hungry from three to sill months. below 8 kilograms of rile per cap1ta monthl y ): average 8.46 per cent in the rural delta and middle highland of the north . rural ~.:oastal areas in the centre . and northern mountainou~ regions. compared with .1 .49 per cent in the rural south: Chronic hunger I he low 12 kilograms of rice per capita monthly): average 20.83 per cent in the regiom mentioned above in the rural north and centre. compared with 13 .22 per cent in the rural south: Chronic ab~olute po verty 1below 15 kilograms of rice per capita monthl y l: average .~6 . 21 per cent in the region mentioned above. compared with 26.-t7 per cent in the rural south . Relative poverty (he low the average llX·al in\.·ome 1: 56.45 per cent in the regions mentioned above . Lompared with 51.).83 per cent in the rural ~out h. The standard set for relatiw povert y in a report made by the same Ministry of Labour in 1992 is 21 - 30 kilograms rice per capita monthly. See Pham Kien Cuong. " Van tie lao dong tloi du tap rrung ra rhanh pho kiem viec lam rui cong lac dang J...y qua11 lv lw khau : rhuc rran~ WI giai plzap" . in Symposium on Social Policirs and Residence. Trand and Traffic S£iferv in Market Mnlwnism