A map of Thu Thiem (New urban area under construction in District 2).
Since arriving in Vietnam, I have paid extra attention to the housing infrastructure and standards of living of Vietnamese people. I feel like one’s home is the biggest and most obvious indicator of one’s socioeconomic status. Moreover, it also clearly shows the difference gap between your own life and someone else’s. In addition to examining the infrastructure of the homes, I’ve also been paying attention to the rapid urbanization of the cities, how this has affected current city residents, and how this has also affected the living standards of rural-to-urban migrants. It is not uncommon for living conditions in Vietnam to be squalid. After seeing the outside, as well as the inside, of several homes, I find myself wondering why people decide to migrate to cities in the first place.
Why do people usually move? Usually, reasons related to economic advancement or career opportunities are the determinants, but if attempts are unsuccessful and one ends up in more squalid conditions, why stay?
I spent a couple of days in Dong Nai, a rural area several hours away from Ho Chi Minh City, with family one weekend. I remember being very surprised about the houses I visited. My grandmother’s house was surprisingly spacious and big. Furthermore, although there were no doors, there was a nice tiled kitchen and a working toilet. From what some roommates told me about their old homes in their hometown, I was expecting houses made of leaves and holes in the ground for toilets.
It looked like my family in Dong Nai wasn’t lacking in anything essential. They had a comfortable home that housed only several people and they didn’t express any trouble with affording basic necessities. However, even though they would talk about how everything in the city was twice the price, they all appeared to want to move to the city. In fact, they would frequently bring up and praise my cousin and one of my aunts, who have both moved to Ho Chi Minh City. It’s almost as if they wished they had the guts to move to the city as well.
..So I went to visit both my cousin and aunt in the city to see what all the fuss was about. I expected their living conditions to be a lot better–what I found wasn’t what I expected. If anything, the living conditions were worse.
My cousin lives in District 4 and lives in a very small room, about half the size of my room in the guesthouse…except she lives with three other people, and I only live with one. She is not going to school and is working at a salon, which doesn’t pay significantly more than her old job at home. Except now, she has to work 12 hours, 6 days a week. When I asked her why she moved here, she said that she wanted more job opportunities.
When I visited my aunt, who lives in District 2, I really couldn’t understand why she chose to stay in the city. Right now, district 2 is under construction because the government is trying to expand the center of the city. Because of this, many people were removed from the land so that new buildings could be built. When I went to see this with my class, it reminded me of Danang. In Danang, there were so many abandoned projects and construction projects everywhere. What were they building? More hotels…in an area already full of hotels.
Anyways, my aunt was clearly struggling to make ends meet. She sells drinks from a cooler all day during the day and makes very little money. Her daughter, who is now 18, stopped going to school after 5th grade and is now working at a very little nail salon, making very little money. Her husband and son are both construction workers who also don’t make a lot of money. From the sound of it, they aren’t really doing any better than they were in the countryside. Migrants from rural areas to urban areas tend to come to urban areas to work in “low-productivity and low-wage sectors in the informal economy of the city- street vendors, casual laborors, or construction workers” (Loi, 2005). They migrate expecting higher urban incomes, which is believed to give them better livelihoods; however, in reality, migrants’ livelihoods are quite low. Yes, the income of migrants is higher than the income of rural people, but living in urban areas is more expensive so the higher income isn’t going to guarantee a better livelihood. Additionally, migrants tend to have to work much harder (work intensity and length of workday) to get a better income than in a rural area (Loi, 2005). Is all this really worth moving to city?
What worries me is the future of urbanization and if it will help or hinder rural-to-urban migrants as well as current residents of the city. Rural to urban migration is rapidly growing and will undoubtedly continue to do so in the future; how will cities be able to accommodate everyone?
References:
Loi, Cu Chi. Rural to Urban Migration in Vietnam. 2005.