While internal, rural-to-urban migration is responsible for much of Viet Nam’s recent economic growth, there
has been little attention directed at the ways in which migration is intersecting with poverty to leave some
children particularly vulnerable to exploitation and inadequate care. Indeed, a complex household registration
system, which serves to limit both legal migration and access to social services, means that many young migrants
migrate illegally—and thus invisibly—and the children of migrants, whether they migrate with their parents or
are left-behind in the care of rural relatives, have difficulty accessing needed educational and health services.
Given the diversity of children’s migration experiences, the frequency with which they migrate, and the reality
that poverty exacerbates risk, a wider lens is required in order to better understand – and design policy and
programming to address – the patterning of care and protection vulnerabilities that face children situated at the nexus
of economic disadvantage and migration.
Investigating the relationships between poverty, migration and child well-being, this report is one of three
country case studies undertaken as part of a 2-year Oak Foundation-funded programme of work which
explored the potential for greater linkages between child protection and anti-poverty work in low and middle
income countries. The research draws on qualitative and participatory research methodologies to ascertain the
drivers of migration, assess the key threats facing migrant and left-behind children and explore the
programming options that communities believe would better protect their children.