Nhóm Chợ lao động



Rapid assessment on the social impacts of economic crisis in

Viet Nam

Case studies on day labourers in “mobile labour markets” in Ha Noi[1]

1. Characteristics of the day laborers

In the scope of this research, we have conducted quick surveys in five “mobile labor markets” (“cho lao dong”) in inner Ha Noi.

- Buoi market: the majority of the people seeking for jobs here come from Yen Thanh district, Nghe An province; the rest come from Thanh Hoa and Dong Anh, a suburban district of Ha Noi.

- Giang Vo market: most of the day laborers in Giang Vo market come from Nam Dinh, Thai Binh and Thanh Hoa provinces.

- My Dinh overpass market: the job seekers in this place are mainly of the community of Phuc Tho district, Ha Noi. Most of them ride their bicycle nearly 60 kilometers everyday to get to My Dinh market and wait for work.

- Pham Ngoc Thach market: A large number of people standing in this market are from Nong Cong district, Thanh Hoa province.

- Long Bien market: Being the biggest fruit and vegetable wholesale market in Ha Noi, Long Bien market is the venue of many manual workers from a wide range of provinces such as Thai Binh, Nam Dinh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An,… but the most are from neighbouring provinces of Ha Noi like Vinh Phuc, Hung Yen…

The people standing and seeking for daily jobs in these “labour markets” usually group by their hometown. In general, each “labour market” has workers from one to three different localities.

“People who previously experienced the work tell and instruct others. In these markets, many people are fellow-countrymen, even fathers and sons, brothers, relatives. There are people from other provinces. For example, Buoi market has workers from Nghe An, Thanh Hoa, even Dong Anh district as well. In Giang Vo market, there are workers from Nam Dinh, Thai Binh, Thanh Hoa. There are many of them.”

(Focus Group Discussions- FGDs with male and female workers in Buoi and Giang Vo markets)

The age of the laborers in these “labor markets” varies widely with the youngest at 16-17 year old and the eldest at around 55 year old.

“In our village, there are 80% to 90% of the families who have their members going far for jobs, they go everywhere. From the young to the middle aged. Just the old and the children stay. If they were hired, they would leave as well. The majority of them work as a mason assistant; the others become workers in factories or come here, stand and wait for a job.”

(Focus Group Discussion -FGD of Nghe An male laborers in Buoi market)

According to our observation and interviews, it is estimated that over 70% of laborers in the studied markets belong to the middle-aged group who are married and are the main bread-winners of their families. They have been working as day laborers in labor markets for quite a long time (from 2 to more than 10 years). And the grounds for their choice are normally lack of paddy field, long period of jobless (after harvest time), no other income generation activities and that they are not qualified enough to become workers in the industrial zones any more.

People from the neighboring provinces of Ha Noi such as Nam Dinh, Thai Binh, Ha Tay, Vinh Phuc, Hung Yen… often go to the city to work for 15 to 25 days per month on average. In busy months of ploughing, transplanting, harvesting time, their working days in the city reduce to 10-15 days per month depending on the workload of their families. People from distant provinces such as Thanh Hoa, Nghe An… frequently cut down their traveling to home to save money. They travel home once every 2-3 months, primarily in ploughing, transplanting and harvesting period to help their family do farm work. However, generally speaking, “people start coming to Ha Noi after the full moon day of Lunar January to seek for jobs but normally they stay home until the rice transplantation period passes by. Then they work in Ha Noi from February to April. After that, they return and stay at home until the end of the full moon day of Lunar July, or from August to October some people then come back home again to do harvesting and transplanting. They leave for Ha Noi in November and wait until the twenty seventh, twenty eighth day of Lunar January to return hometown.”

(FGDs of male and female workers in Buoi and Giang Vo markets)

These middle aged people rarely go to the South like the young ones because the cost for travelling is relatively high and they still have to come home and help their families with farm work or sudden family affairs.

“The cost for traveling between the South and hometown is quite high so they only come home once every 7-8 months. We work near home; it only takes us several hours traveling home when a sudden family affair occurs. But if we were in the South and heard the news, it would take some days to travel home by bus. Our staying far could make our wives and children feel sad. In general, this job is quite flexible. We can return home whenever we want. In busy period of farm work, we can stay at home and help our families. When we have free time, we can go to the city, look for a job and earn some money.”

(FGDs of male and female workers in Buoi and Giang Vo markets)

On the contrary, according to 20-30% of the young and single people in labor markets, this work is a sort of temporary work to earn enough money for a vocational training or to pay the cost of traveling to the South to find a more stable and higher income job such as mason assistant, coffee harvester,… Almost all members of this group, while looking for a chance to travel to the South, come here and wait for a job before or after traditional Tet and by the way save money from traveling reduction due to “gas prices in the last months before Tet are twice or one and a half time as much as usual.” Some of them by this chance “leave for Ha Noi right after the full moon day of January and stay until mid or end of Lunar February. If they get a quite amount of money to afford the traveling cost, they will stay home until mid March and then go to the South till Lunar December”

(FGDs of male and female workers in Buoi and Giang Vo markets)

The jobs with high demand of hiring people are normally the ones related to construction such as mason assistant, digging house foundation, staking for house making …; coming after is carrying/portering for companies, shops, and after that are other jobs for families like transportation, furniture carrying, house and garden cleaning…

As generally estimated, female laborers account for about 30-40% of the total. However, the quantity varies among markets. For instance, in Pham Ngoc Thach market, 100% of the laborers are men; but up to 70% of the people standing in My Dinh overpass are women. The majority of women doing this job come from poor families or they go to the city with their husbands to take care of their family members. Another cause is that the working venue is near enough to their home villages so that they can work daytime and return home in the evening. According to traditional perceptions, the work is divided by sex. Male laborers often do “heavy” work such as: carrying/portering, mason, digging, leveling the ground, digging the house foundation… while the female normally do “light work” such as cleaning, helping housework…

Being interviewed, some women said that “It’s easier for male laborers to get a job in comparison with the female. Allowances for both of us for the same type of work are the same but the selection is different. With heavy work, the strong and healthy male laborers are often picked. Most of the employers don’t choose the women for this kind of work unless there are no male laborers at that time.” (Hoang Thi L., 39, Nghe An, a worker in Buoi market)

2. Changes in the supply and demand of employment over the last 12 months

2.1 Reduced employment demand

In the context of economic crisis, the demand of employment in various fields is critically reduced. Job opportunities for day laborers in the city are not out of that trend. Normally, tens to hundreds of people stand in labor markets waiting for a job but “on average, only 5-6 employers come to the labor market a day. And each of them just asks for 1-2 people. Therefore, there are only 10-15 days a month that we have job. Lucky people could get paid work for 20 days. This’s kind of luck. Jobs choose people, not the people choose jobs.” (FGDs of male and female workers in Buoi and Giang Vo labor markets)

Employment demand in 2008 dropped compared to 2007 and previous years. In early 2009, this situation is going on and even getting worse. Interviewees said that on average, of 10 days standing in the market, there were 7 days that they could get a job in 2007, but only 3-5 days in 2008. As calculated by the laborers, the workload of February 2009 is 30% less than the same period of 2008. “Last year, we had more jobs. After last Tet, we could get a job at once. But it’s different this year. Assuming that previously (February 2008) we had 10 jobs, now we only have 7. The quantity of employers suddenly falls.” (FGDs of male workers in Buoi and Giang Vo labor markets)

Construction related jobs have been reduced most

Annually, September to December of the Lunar year is the period that laborers gather most to seek for a job. This is the time that they can find a lot of jobs and have highest income in a year. Of that, September and October are the months for construction, November is normally the month for completion of the construction and many cleaning jobs (for Tet) rise in December. However, from September 2008, job opportunities have disappeared, especially the construction work. It is estimated by the interviewed laborers at various labor markets that construction related work is estimated to decrease by about 70% after one year. “Almost no new constructions of private companies, only several big constructions of some companies and agencies are kept ongoing.” (Nguyen Thi T., 34, Phuc Tho district-Ha Noi, worker in My Dinh overpass market). Then comes the decrease of jobs like digging, carrying/portering, transportation, house moving... Last is the “light” work such as cleaning, tidying… which marginally declines.

“We come here mostly to do the construction work but it is strongly reduced this year. Some jobs can be found in Lunar December because many people want to clean, tidy or move the house. Very few jobs found during the previous months. We had jobs for around 10 days only.”

(FGD of male laborers in Buoi labor market)

|Causes of the reduction in the demand of employment of free laborers |

| |

|Not only by the economic crisis but the tendency of increasingly reduced demand of employment of free laborers is also caused by: |

|Since the 2008 economic crisis, material prices have raised causing postponement of many planned constructions and stopping a lot of |

|new constructions. As a consequence, job opportunities created by this sector strongly went down. In addition, the fact that many |

|contractors had equipped full of machines to reduce the number of employees as well as to improve the progress has contributed to the |

|fall of employment opportunities for amateur manual laborers in this sector. |

|Slow consumption of products has forced a great deal of companies and businesses to minimize their production. Therefore, the job of |

|carrying and portering has declined too. |

|Higher and higher living expenses have negatively affected the needs and hobbies of shopping new things like plants, furniture,… The |

|transportation work, accordingly, is not at as high demand as before. |

|More household equipment and the development of service companies also contribute to the situation of lessening jobs for free manual |

|laborers. To name just a few, many families can buy modern devices to do their housework in stead of employing anybody or they can ask |

|services from the prestigious service companies. Many families choose machine to drain off and clean the toilets instead of calling |

|people to do it manually. |

2.2 Reduced labor supply after Tet this year compared with last year

Since the research was conducted right after traditional Tet, the number of free laborers in these markets was quite small, partly because not much labor demand exists right after Tet yet, partly as they want to stay home to do rice transplantation for new Winter-Spring crop or just because they want to relax after the traditional New year festival to wait for the period with more opportunities to come to the city.

However, at the time of this survey, it was said that after Tet this year, the number of laborers coming to the city labor markets was less than the same time of the previous year. "At present, there are about 60 people in the market while there would be up to 80-100 people at the same time last year. Many people don’t want to go to the city because it is much more difficult to find a job than last year but they have no other choice. Their children only put hope in the parents in city to have money to send home. Moreover, Ha Noi is complicated. I am so tired of it. Standing in the middle of streets, no shelter when it’s sunny or rainy. We asked people for a favor to let us to stand at their door to avoid the heavy rain but they did not agree. Even though we stand whole day in the street, we don’t dare take a short break and keep waiting for a job. Just like fishing. Jobs are getting less and less.”

(FGDs of male and female laborers in Buoi and Giang Vo markets)

Table 1: Comparison of the number of free laborers among different labour markets[2]

|Market |January 2008 (before Tet) |February 2008 (after Tet) |January 2009 (pre-Tet) |February 2009 (after Tet) |

|Buoi market |120-130 |70-80 |130-150 |55-60 |

|Giang Vo market |90-95 |40 |100 |30 |

|My Dinh overpass market |50 |20-30 |50-60 |20-30 |

|Pham Ngoc Thach market |55-60 |20 |60-70 |15 |

Particularly in 2008, despite the reduced employment, the quantity of laborers standing in these markets in the last months of the year were in the trend of increasing. Few job opportunities and a huge number of job seekers, the free laborers had to be patient with a hope to have a job.

“Getting up at 6, washing face, brushing teeth, having breakfast, we come to the market at 7 and start waiting. We keep waiting like that. At noon, we have lunch in a small restaurant. After lunch, we continue waiting without a break. Only the people who had work in the morning can have a short nap until 1.00-2.00 pm and then continue waiting. We keep doing that until 9.00-10.00pm.”

(FGD of male laborers in Buoi market)

“Doing this work like going fishing. We just depend on luck. Sometimes, we sit and wait the whole morning for nothing but hardly had we gone out for a drink or going to the toilet when a person called.”

(Do Van D. 44, Thanh Hoa, worker in Pham Ngoc Thach market)

|Some main causes of the increase in the number of day laborers in labor markets in the year of 2008 |

| |

|When being asked “in late 2008, less jobs were received, whether the laborers standing at the labor markets would increase or decrease |

|compared with the same time the year before?”. Most of the respondents perceive that “increase, not decrease”. They estimate that since |

|April 2008 and especially the last 3 months of 2008, the quantity of day laborers in these labor markets has gone up slightly by 5-10 |

|percent compared to the previous year. According to the interviewed laborers, it is supposed to be caused by: |

|Due to instable prices of agricultural products, farmers lost their revenue. Additionally, most of the Summer-Autumn crops were washed |

|away by the severe flood in Ha Noi. That is the reason why people not only in distant provinces but also in the suburb of Ha Noi such as |

|Ha Tay, Dong Anh… flocked into the city to find jobs. |

|With limited capacity and no other income generation activities, many farmers whose land was taken for the construction of industrial |

|zones or entertainment centres had to join the team of day laborers in Ha Noi. |

|Traditional inshore fishing in Nghe An and Thanh Hoa does not bring good results but poor fisherman can not afford modern equipment to go|

|offshore to raise the productivity. |

|Gas prices went up. Income from driving motorbike taxi went down. Many drivers had to do more jobs like transporting, carrying furniture…|

|to increase income when they are available. |

|Many female scrap dealers were willing to work as a cleaner to get more cash. |

|A few of workers in industrial zones lost their jobs because most of the factories/ businesses minimized the volume of production since |

|there were no orders or only small orders. After returning to hometown, they quickly came to the city and became members of the group |

|standing in labor markets. |

|Some people who went abroad for labor export came back earlier than expected because of their contracts terminated. |

|There were a number of workers temporarily raised in Lunar December. They were the people working in the South and returning home sooner |

|to save the travel cost by avoiding the time of expensive traveling prices. But they took advantage to earn some more money for Tet in Ha|

|Noi. |

|Especially in late 2008 and early 2009, there have been several cases of male students standing in some labor markets such as My Dinh |

|overpass which is close to Ha Noi National University, University of Teaching, Institute of Journalism and Communication. These students |

|frequently stood for half a day (if they had to study in the morning, they would join the labor markets in the afternoon and vice versa) |

|and the frequency was not stable, depending on their studying. |

2.3 Social capital of the day laborers is relatively high

In almost all studied markets, it is shown that the solidarity spirit of the laborers within the same market is very high. It appears not only among brothers, close relatives but the people from different regions of the country. With the viewpoint “we are all in the same boat so we should understand and help each other”, fighting over job opportunities is reported rarely occur.

“While working here, hardly we fight or quarrel for jobs. Certainly we have conflicts but as close as bowls and chopsticks still hit each other sometimes. However, most of the quarrels are caused by drunkenness and often stop at exchanging strong words, seldom fighting.”

(FGDs of male and female workers in Buoi and Giang Vo markets)

The most important qualification of the job seekers is the ability to “promptly jump” on the employer’s transportation means. As a result, when a person calls, they also elbow or push each other out to jump to the motorbike. But if one is picked, the others will not fight, quarrel or give out the competitive price to win the opportunity.

“We don’t compete in prices because we are brothers. If they give the bad price and we don’t want to do, we will ask if anybody else wants. We just compete in jumping on the employer’s motorbike and that’s all. We seldom fight because we are of the same difficult situation, as hard as each other. ”

(FGDs of male and female workers in Buoi and Giang Vo markets)

Of the five surveyed areas, only once at the end of December 2008 in Pham Ngoc Thach market did the fighting happen to vie for the job.

“There are too many people but too little work. Fighting is only for the job. Being jobless, suddenly called for a job but another one jumped in and grabbed it from your hand. All these things push you out of the control and then you fight. However, when the fighting is over, we are still brothers.”

(Do Van D., 44, Thanh Hoa, worker in Pham Ngoc Thach market)

The majority of the day laborers also admitted that the selection of employees depends on the feeling of the employers. Nevertheless, in most cases, although the employer has chosen some specific people already, other people still follow. When they arrive the work venue, unless the employer still keeps his choice and only accept some people, the rest will not leave; in case the employer agrees to leave the whole work to all, they will do it together and share the pay. This sharing is one of the methods to reduce the “luck” nature during job waiting process.

“Little work, the employers only picked 1-2 persons but others still followed them and then worked together. For instance, they hire us to do this work for 400,000 dong. If they only choose me or 1-2 people else, we can earn much. But if everybody go and work together, we will share the pay regardless of sex. Because we are in the same difficult situation.”

(FGDs of male and female workers in Buoi and Giang Vo markets)

Furthermore, some people have familiar employers with frequent jobs like cleaning, carrying and portering … These employers do not come to the market and make a phone call only. Many laborers have no cell phone but they can ask for a favor from the others in the same market or boarding house to contact the employer fearless of the others scrambling for the work. Normally, 5 to 7 people share a cell phone on average.

Previously, house cleaning and dish washing were considered “chores” by the male workers, and only the female did that work. However, since late 2008, the work opportunities have gone gradually. Consequently, in order to get payment, if the chance is available, a considerable number of male workers are willing to get this kind of work to get more income. With the same reason, many women are ready for the heavy work such as carrying/portering, mason assistant, soil digging… which are usually done by men before.

2.4 Overall income of manual workers in 2008 has fallen compared to 2007

Pay rates in the end of 2008 increased by 10-20% compared to the beginning of the same year

Basically, supposed by job seekers, average pay for the work in the end of 2008 was 10-20% higher than the same period last year (although the real amounts in various cases are far different from each other, depending on the bargain of daily wage rate and all-in price between the employer and employee). The workers in the discussion group have shown changes in the prices of some major kinds of work as follows:

Table: Pays for the work over the last twelve months (dong)

| |February 2008 |January 2009 |February 2009 |

|Construction work: |(VND/day) |(VND/day) | |

|Major mason |80.000 -100.000 |100.000 - 120.000 |( not available yet |

|Supporting mason |50.000 - 60.000 |65.000 - 85.000 |( not available yet |

|Digging |40.000 -50.000 VND/m3 |60.000-70.000 VND/m3 |not available yet |

|Loading and unloading goods by |30.000 VND/ton |35.000 VND/day |( little work |

|hand/carrying | | | |

|Transportation |100.000 VND/day |150.000 VND/day |( little work |

These above rates are similar regardless of sex.

In fact, in the time of being jobless, the free laborers are still willing to get a job even if the pay is poor compared to the market price or less than the effort that they have to spend.

“We are the main bread-winners of our families, our wives and children only raise 2-3 pigs at home. Selling pigs only earns several hundreds that can afford the food and some books for the children only. So they still depend on the amount that we send them. Therefore, no matter how much the pay is, we still do the work.”

(FGD of male workers in Buoi market)

The pay hardly raises, living cost dramatically increases, and job opportunities are gone. Savings of the manual workers have noticeably dropped.

In the context of food and housing cost increasing by 25-50%, the pay for the job only raising 10-20% and the working days decreasing by 50%, savings for sending home of the free workers who seek jobs on daily basis considerably cut down.

- Male workers who live far away from their home save least. On average, one person has to pay 50,000-60,000 dongs including 10,000 dongs for the average rent per day and night (this figure is 7,000 in early 2008), 5,000 to15,000 for breakfast, 15,000-20,000 for lunch and diner in cheap restaurants and besides, some for tea and cigarette and sometimes, even for wine.

“In the beginning of 2008, the prices were lower, only 10,000 for a quite good meal which we can eat freely. But now it is so bad. 10,000 for a poor meal, 5,000 can only buy 3 slides of meat as small as a finger with mostly fat and little lean. If we don’t eat enough, we will have no energy to do the work. So we have no other choice than buying a 15,000-20,000-meal. We know that it is costly but what else can we do?”

(Cao Van H., 42, Thanh Hoa, worker in Pham Ngoc Thach market)

- Female group that live far away from home still have to rent the house but they often cook meals themselves which helps them to save more money. It only takes them 18-25,000 dongs per day for the food.

- People living in the suburb of Ha Noi can travel to-and-from hence they only have to spend 7,000-20,000 dongs for lunch everyday.

However, since the last months of 2008, the job opportunities have remarkably declined, which lessened the day laborers’ income. High proportion of the interviewees told that they can save more in 2007 compared to 2008. On average, in 2007, their savings reached 1.2-1.5 million per month, even 2 million per month depending on the luck of getting more or fewer jobs. Yet, in 2008, they could only save 500,000 to 1,000,000 dongs per month.

In particular, since traditional Tet of this year, there has been too little construction work. Neither did the other work. “After last year’s Tet, I could earn hundreds but this year; working for the same days only brings enough cash for food and house renting. Some people even couldn’t afford those things and they had to borrow for food.” (FGDs of male and female free laborers in Buoi market). Even some people in the suburb, in spite of the fact that they don’t have to pay the rent, still have to worry about the food because they can not find any work to do.

“Money is now losing its value. Last Tet, rice price only fluctuated between 5,000-7,000 dongs but at present, it increases to over 10,000 dongs/kg. The most harsh time is January, February and March, right after Tet, when we have very few jobs and no money. We still have no job in April and May but we have rice. We grow subsidiary crops from June to August. In the period of September to December, we get more jobs. Normally, we buy meat 3-4 times per month with 300-400 grams each time and cook it dry for the children to eat gradually. But since Tet we haven’t got any job so our children haven’t got any meat accordingly. We can’t afford dried fish either because dried fish is as expensive as meat at this time. Money earned is only enough for 2,000 dong of soya curd and a little pig’s nape fat which is processed into liquid fat to cook with vegetable, to fry the soya curd and the scrap for the children to eat.”

(Phi Thi H., 35, Phuc Tho district, Ha Noi, a female worker in My Dinh overpass market)

Parents are unable to get a job, children have to quit studying

Tuition fee for children is one of the biggest concerns of most people who daily stand in labor markets waiting for a job. “Food can be reduced. We can eat whatever we have; even a bundle of vegetable picked in the garden can be food. But the tuition fees must be submitted in time otherwise our children can’t continue their study.” (Cao Van H., 42, Thanh Hoa, a male worker in Pham Ngoc Thach market). The majority of interviewees said that if their children had enough capacity and expectation to study, they would spare no efforts to provide their children to finish grade 12. But higher education is much more difficult. Even though their children pass the entry exam, they hardly afford it. But since Tet 2009, they even have not been able to afford their living expenses. Therefore, many children are being put in the circumstance to quit their study because “if we only count on some cells of paddy field, we will have not enough food for the whole family, not to mention tuition fees” (FGD of male workers in Buoi market)

“If we can’t earn money to send home like we have been now since January 10th of Lunar year, it will be highly potential that our second child has to quit learning at school to come to the city and do housework for other families to earn for the education fee of her two younger siblings. Some of our fellow countrymen are in the same situation. They are very upset but they have no solution. Relatives, friends of theirs also have their own problems so all that they can do is to talk and console each other. Commune government could do nothing but help me by providing a permit for my temporary leaving so that I can leave home to work far. In the near future, some women from my village might also come here for job but I am thinking of advising them not to do so but to save money for the traveling cost to the South. Everything will be easier in the South.”

(Hoang Thi L., 39, Nghe An, a female laborer with 4 children with 2 sons and 2 daughters who are joining school)

3. Ways to cope with risk

With high social capital – laborers are willing to help each other to overcome difficulties

Despite little sharing among workers on the wage rate or earnings of the day, these day laborers can borrow money from each other to overcome the hard time or difficulties in the situations such as no job, no money for house renting or food, need of money to send home,… They might not be relatives or fellow countrymen. Sometimes, they just know each other or live closely in the same boarding house.

“If somebody has a problem, he could ask for a loan from other people even though he might have no money to pay back. Just like me several days ago, I have been here for some days but couldn’t get any job. I had to borrow from the people who has been here before and earned some. The loaners and the borrowers both remember the loan and no one welsh on their debts. Right when we’ve got money, we will pay at once. We are both in the same difficult condition. Today we borrow from them then tomorrow, if they need, we can loan them back. People earn more help the more difficult people when they have problems.”

(FGDs of male and female workers in Buoi and Giang Vo markets)

Most of the free laborers on their owns have built a personal rules for the loan. They normally ask for a loan between 100,000-200,000 dongs on average and hardly exceeding 500,000 dongs, ‘we don’t ask for a big loan due to the fear of inability to pay back. We rarely ask for a loan as well. For example, when we haven’t got money to send home, we must think over and estimate carefully the necessary amount based on the needs. If we need 100,000 for rice, 100,000 for tuition fee of the children, we borrow 200,000 only.’ (FGD of male workers in Buoi market) 

Building a good relationship with the house lessors and shop owners is a temporary way to overcome the difficulties.

Information collected has shown that who have a good relationship with the lessor and shop owners can possibly:

- Eat on credit not exceeding 100,000 dongs for a couple of days.

- Sleep on credit for maximum 10 days

- Owe the shop owners less than 20,000 dongs.

Although these amounts are not big ones, they are a way of support that can help the workers to get by in a short run if they are jobless at that time.

4. Future expectations and planning

Most of the asked laborers have the same thoughts that they will continue standing in labor markets although the earnings might decrease due to the economic crisis. The reasons they raised are that “limited capacity, lack of paddy field, no other income generation activities lead us to no other choice than sticking to this kind of work because we don’t know what to do if we come back home. If we leave for home now, we know nothing to do other than sitting and looking at each other. How can we live?” (FGD of male workers in Buoi market)

If they are still jobless like the situation of after Tet 2009 and they get too many debts, some of them will probably “come back to home town for a period of time and listen out for a new job”. Some other people plan to try their best to loan money to go to the South with hopes to find a higher income and more stable job.

“Some people invite me to go to the South with them to do coffee planting. I am thinking over. If I am not able to earn any money in 2 weeks, I will go the South with them to give a try. Although I’ve never gone far before, I have to take the risk. Even not for planting coffee but for construction work, I will go as well provided that I can earn money to send home to pay for my child’s education.” 

(Hoang Thi L., 39, Nghe An, a female worker in Buoi market)

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[1] Dinh Thi Thu Phuong (Ageless Consulting)

There are 25 laborers including 9 female joining the rapid assessment in total. Research team has conducted 3 FGDs using some PRA tools such as timeline, ranking exercise with 16 workers (of that 3 are female) and conducted in-depth interviews with 9 laborers (with 6 female) in 5 main labor markets in Ha Noi.

[2] The figures are estimated by the labourers participating in our group discussions and interviews.

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