After the 1986 policy renovation lead to rapid economic growth in Vietnam, a great number of
medium and small enterprises has been launching as a result of national industrialization which
contributed more than 21% for labour rose for the country. In such area, there is a shortage in
labour resource. This required a big supplement from rural area known as rural-urban temporary
migration [Dekasegi]. The temporary migration has drawn the interest of both policy makers and
researches in recent debates. However, most of the researches just carry out to analyze migration
in general including permanent and temporary migration.
This study aimed at investigating the effects of temporary migration on migrants, agricultural
production and migrant households in Red River Delta. A face-to-face direct interview method
was applied to a sample 80 migrants and 200 households of those migrants from Hai Duong and
Thai Binh provinces. We found the results as follows:
First, most migrants were males and over 40 years old with low education levels. They
worked temporary jobs as daily worker, housemaid, street vendor and industrial worker in cities.
Young migrants worked as industrial workers, while older migrants worked as daily labourers.
Those who migrated for fewer years worked as industrial workers in cities near their hometowns.
Those who migrated for many years worked as daily labourers and housemaids in cities further
their hometowns.
Second, the disadvantages of geographic conditions, natural environment and socio-economic
factors are main cause of earlier and higher rate of temporary migration. Also depending on
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different purpose of migrant, better occupations bring better income and remittance even though,
brings better finance recourse in increasing life conditions, it comes with heavier risks and
difficulties in household welfare.
Third, the remittance helped to increase the amount of income of households but the share of
agricultural income declined significantly. The transfer of family labour from agriculture to
migrant is the main cause of the decrease in agricultural income. Young migrants had more
negative effects on agricultural production than those old migrants. The longer the migratory
period was the slighter negative effects and the shorter migration the more negative effects.
Agricultural production among migrants who worked as industrial workers and housemaids
decreased rapidly, whereas it decreased slightly among migrants who worked as daily labourers,
street vendors, or so on. The farther the distance of migrants from their households, the greater the
more negative effects on agricultural production. Agricultural income decreased dramatically
among households with young migrants, industrial workers and those who had short migratory
years and had the further destination. However older individuals who migrated for a longer
duration and worked as daily labourers has a slightly decrease in agricultural income.
Fourth, the study found that it is easy to realize positive effects on household livelihood such
as income, expenditure and investment. For migrants, it seems to be an opportunity for
employment with higher salary and working skills. However, negative effects should be concerned
in terms of low job security such as lack of health and employment insurance, difficulties and risks
in family and society during and after migration.
Based on those findings, we attempt to provide implications to policymakers, in general, and
migrants, migrant households in particular, to balance activities in migration and in agricultural
production. Consequently, rural agricultural households still received income from temporary
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migration and from agricultural production. Therefore, we expect farm household should receive
better treatment from government and policy makers according to more detailed researches and
investigation along with the characteristics of migrants and migration household for further
agricultural and rural development in Vietnam.