Kaxton Yu-Kwan Siu of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s Department of Applied Social Sciences, speaks at the “Migration and Labour in Vietnam” international conference in HCM City (Photo: VNA)
HCM City (VNA) - Improvedinternational regulations and standards are needed to protect the rightsand welfare of migrants, including thousands of Vietnamese guest workers, speakerssaid at an international conference on migration and labour held inHCM City on August 3.
Labour migrationis a highly fluid phenomenon in the 21st century, capturing publicattention and driving political controversy globally, Prof Kaxton Yu-KwanSiu, of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s Department of Applied SocialSciences, said.
The scholar notedthat even as cross-border or inter-regional movement may beckon as a source ofhope and new opportunity, the experience for migrants and their families isoften fraught with peril.
He cited the exampleof Vietnam, where foreign investors have built many export-orientedfactories that has generated a constant rural-to-urban work migration flow.
Nguyen Thi Hong Xoan,dean of the sociology faculty at the University of Social Sciences andHumanities in HCM City, said that migrant workers face a lack ofprotections, high recruitment costs, and costly and lengthy migrationprocedures.
In 2015, some 36 percentof HCM City’s population were migrants with temporary residencestatus, according to figures from the World Bank.
Another survey by theWorld Bank in the same year showed three quarters of employees at foreignfirms in Vietam were migrant workers.
Around 80,000Vietnamese leave the country for jobs overseas each year, according to theInternational Labour Organisation (ILO). About 400,000 Vietnameseworkers are present in more than 40 countries and territories worldwide.
According to theWorld Bank’s Migration and Remittances, the inflows of remittances to Vietnamby guest workers reached 13.8 billion USD in 2017, a rise of 16 percentover 2016, ranking eighth in the world, showing the economic significanceof labour migration.
However, thereare major issues associated with labour migration such as the violation ofrights of workers by employers, breach of contracts and desertionby workers, illegal networks of recruitment, and violation of governmentregulations on recruitment procedures.
Migrant workers areoften vulnerable and policies across the region do little to address theirneeds, according to the ILO.
According to UN data,80 percent of intra-ASEAN migrants are low skilled and many of them areundocumented.
Construction,plantation work and domestic services are the sectors that receive the mostmigrant workers.
They often facearrest or deportation when attempting to fight for their rights, and are boundto special documents that limit their ability to change jobs.
The conferenceon “Migration and Labour in Vietnam” gathered scholars from differentparts of the world and drew on a wide variety of disciplines, includinghistory, anthropology, ethnicstudies, gender studies, public health, law and public policy.
The event wasorganised by HCM City’s University of Social Sciences and Humanities andHong Kong Polytechnic University.-VNA
