HANOI (ILO News) – A new ILO’s research finds that migration can be a vehicle for women’s empowerment in Viet Nam, but the positive outcomes of migration are limited when women have few choices.

The report ‘More choices, more power: Opportunities for women’s empowerment in labour migration from Viet Nam’ discusses socio-economic changes that a sample of migrant and non-migrant women experienced over the 2012-18 period.

According to the report, more institutional support throughout the migration experience is necessary to further improve migration outcomes. Women will need to have more control in migration decisions – about where and when to go and what kind of job to do. In this way, migration could become an important force in furthering gender equality in the world of work.

Anna Engblom, Chief Technical Advisor of the TRIANGLE In ASEAN programme on safe migration, acknowledged that women’s migration outcomes are complex, and remarked that ‘the findings of this research demonstrate ways that the Government could enable more positive outcomes for more women migrant workers.’

The study used several indicators to investigate the experience of a sample of women from five provinces in Viet Nam. Respondents included 323 returned women migrant workers and 178 non-migrant women. A further 61 women participated in interviews and focus group discussions.

A key finding of the research is that access to employment markets is not equal and is strongly determined by opportunities and conditions at home, in the origin community. This factor, compounded by the conditions or sector of work in destination country, combine to affect the migration outcomes. Migration destinations were a key predictive factor of social outcomes. However, the impact of high migration costs to desirable destinations mitigated the potential for positive outcomes. In addition, some surveyed women indicated that the economies to which they returned provided few opportunities for them to use the skills earned through migration to access better jobs.




The report calls for improvement of existing laws and policies that facilitate labour migration and support women to develop local economies. It points at the need for gender responsive components in migration laws and MOUs with destination countries. Specifically, the Vietnamese Government is urged to take up this call during the ongoing revision of the Law on Vietnamese Workers Working Abroad under Contract known as Law 72.

“The findings from this research provides interesting information that can be relevant to the revision of the law, that should respond to the ever-growing number of Vietnamese women migrant workers,” said Engblom.

Further recommendations include increasing the implementation and monitoring standards of pre-departure trainings, ensuring smoother and faster access to migration destinations to all, reducing or eliminating worker paid recruitment costs and fees and developing reintegration programmes to support women’s social transition and to recognize skills gained abroad.

The research was supported by the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, through the ILO TRIANGLE in ASEAN programme.

For more information please contact:
Anna Olsen
Technical Specialist
TRIANGLE in ASEAN
ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
www.ilo.org/triangleinasean


Note to the editors

The ILO recommends using the terms “labour migration”, “labour movement” or “labour mobility” instead of “labour export” as labour is not a commodity.

“Irregular migrant workers”, “migrant workers with irregular status” or “undocumented migrant workers” should also be used instead of “illegal migrant workers”.

“Domestic workers” should be used instead of “maids”, “helpers” or “servants”.

Your support of using rights-based language can prevent discrimination against irregular migrant workers and promote social inclusion.