International Migration

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION
AND RETURN MIGRANTS IN VIET NAM
Presented by:
Mr. Pham Van Dinh
Senior official of the Consular Department
Ministry of Foreign Affair of Vietnam.
1) Vietnam and international migration
In the trend of the international integration and globalization, Vietnam

is among countries that have a big number of its people emigrate abroad.
They stay in almost every countries and territories of the world. Every year,
many of them return to Vietnam with different purposes: permanent stay
(repatriation), relative visit, investment, business doing. etc.
With a full cognition of the positive impacts as well as the challenges

brought by the migration, the Government of Vietnam has been finalizing
and updating its regulations on migration in a hope to catch up with the
common trend of the world. On the other hand, the Government also closely
cooperates with related countries to better manage migration issues with the
aim to stimulate the lawful migration and consistently prevent illegal
migration.
We are now fully aware of the mutual relation between migration and
development which has become the deep concern of many countries as well
as the world community.
There are many causes of migration, among which, the main and
deep- rooted cause is the economic one. That is due to the ever- increasing
gap between countries on economic development level, on the
accommodation of life, on the income and due to the fast speed of
globalization.
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Vietnam is aware that, beside its challenges, international migration
has made positive contribution to the economic development of the involved
countries. It generates the opportunity for the economic development, meets
the demand of the involved countries for labor human resources, stimulates
the technology transfer between countries, creates jobs, reduces
unemployment, eliminates hunger and reduces poverty, improves life
standard as well as increases the source of hard foreign currency for
countries of origin.
Vietnam’s population now is 84.2 millions and there are around 1.2
million young people entering the labor age each year. International
migration has increased significantly in recent years. At present, there are
3.2 millions Vietnamese permanently living abroad (400,000 of them are
graduates and post-graduates) and 500.000 Vietnamese migrant workers
working in more than 40 different countries and territories all over the world
under time -limited labor contracts.
Our Government considers Vietnamese overseas as the integral part of

the Vietnamese people. This community plays an important role in the
economic development of the country.
Beside the technology transfer, investment, trade, creating jobs and

increase the skilled labor force of the country, about 2 billions USD sent to
Vietnam per year by Vietnamese overseas. That is not yet including around
1.6 billion USD sent home by the migrant workers.
Government of Vietnam values and highly appreciates all kinds of

contribution made by Vietnamese migrants for the economic development of
Vietnam.
2. Some measures and policies to stimulate the return migrants to make

contributions to the economic development of Vietnam:
- For the temporary return migrants, regardless of their present status

of nationality: If they stay in Vietnam continuously for 06 months, they are
eligible to buy and posses an apartment in Vietnam for living. They are all
equally treated as the local people living in Vietnam for the economic
benefits. There is no discrimination of the domestic prices applied between
them, including air-tickets, house-purchase, taxes .etc.
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- For the permanent return migrants: they can bring along all their
personal belongings to Vietnam without import taxes.
- Regarding the immigration policy, in order to make it convenient

and to facilitate for the Vietnamese overseas to enter or exit Vietnam, the
Government of Vietnam has decided to exempt all kinds of visas to Vietnam
for those people regardless of whether they are holding Vietnamese
passports or foreign passports. This policy stimulates Vietnamese migrants
to return Vietnam more often and produces positive impacts in different
domains including economic development.
- For the Vietnamese migrant workers: Before leaving abroad, they

are allowed to borrow from the banks a certain amount of money with a very
soft rate of interests in order to give them easy condition that they can afford
enough money for needed expenditures before departure; the workers are
also given opportunity to attend the vocational training courses to improve
their technologies, professional skill, to learn English and to study the law,
the practices as well as the habits and customs of receiving country. After
some years of working abroad, when their labor contracts ended, the workers
return home, they will be encouraged to use their capital for investment and
production. Their such doings play an important role in creating jobs,
reducing unemployment, especially in the far distance and remote rural
areas. The poverty there, thus, reduced step by step. For those return workers
with good credits (did not violate the law of the original country as well as
of the country of destination) and accomplished their old labor contracts,
they were given priority to sign a new contract for a next departure.
In the coming years, labor export is still regarded as an important

strategy of Vietnam. We estimate that around 75,000 to 80,000 Vietnamese
trained workers will be sent abroad under time-limited labor contracts every
year.
To achieve this aim, we understand that some works must be done:
- To build and improve law system on migration, particularly

international labor migration, detailing the policies in management and
encouraging the return migrants to take part more actively in the process of
development;
- To establish institutions specializing in dealing with migration in
order to provide information and knowledge to migrant workers;
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- To strictly monitor activities of companies, agencies engaging labor
export;
- To often raise awareness through training and media, helping

migrant workers to make right decisions on working abroad;
- To set up and complete the system of Labor Management

Committee at destination countries to help the workers when needed.
- Actively participate in regional consultative processes, multilateral

dialogues and strengthen the cooperation with governmental organizations,
non-governmental organizations, business community for building
partnership, capacity and sharing of best practices.
In recent years, Vietnam has often received prompt and precious

assistances and cooperation from the IOM in many aspects of international
migration. I would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks
to the IOM for this matter and hope that the cooperation between IOM and
Vietnam in the coming years will be further strengthened.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I thank you very much for your kind attention !
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INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION

AND RETURN MIGRANTS IN VIET NAM

1) Vietnam and international migration

In the trend of the international integration and globalization, Vietnam

With a full cognition of the positive impacts as well as the challenges

Our Government considers Vietnamese overseas as the integral part of

Beside the technology transfer, investment, trade, creating jobs and

Government of Vietnam values and highly appreciates all kinds of

2. Some measures and policies to stimulate the return migrants to make

- For the temporary return migrants, regardless of their present status

- Regarding the immigration policy, in order to make it convenient

- For the Vietnamese migrant workers: Before leaving abroad, they

In the coming years, labor export is still regarded as an important

To achieve this aim, we understand that some works must be done:

- To build and improve law system on migration, particularly

- To often raise awareness through training and media, helping

- To set up and complete the system of Labor Management

- Actively participate in regional consultative processes, multilateral

In recent years, Vietnam has often received prompt and precious

Ladies and gentlemen,

I thank you very much for your kind attention !

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