At least 1.3 million migrants left Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and other southern localities for their hometowns during the worst outbreak Vietnam has experienced. Images of those making the journey, many with children on motorcycles piled with personal belongings, have been shared widely on Facebook and TikTok. The exodus illuminates one of the communities hardest hit by Covid-19. But migrant workers’ difficult conditions already existed before the pandemic.
Internal migrants play a pivotal role in the making of Vietnam's economy and social fabric. Who are they and what can we learn about them? We talk with Tu Phuong Nguyen, a Saigonese scholar at the University of Adelaide, who has been doing research about Vietnamese internal migrant workers since 2014.
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Vietnam and Boba podcast is a narrative journalism podcast which features local voices and perspectives about socioeconomic, cultural and policy issues in Vietnam to the global audience. It is brought to you by Vietnamese journalist, host and producer Sen Nguyen and multimedia storyteller and photojournalist Giang Pham.
