A Safe Return: Changing Attitudes and Traditions in Vietnam

Introduction

There is a growing demand for female labour in factories and for women to serve as domestic help in Taiwan, Malaysia, South Korea and some Middle East countries. Over the past ten years, Vietnam has become a major supply source of these workers, and labour exporting has been an increasingly important strategy for addressing unemployment, generating foreign exchange, and fostering economic growth.

Migrant workers often lack proper contracts and employers frequently violate the legal procedures for dismissal. Domestic workers living on employers’ property can also be subject to sexual harassment, which renders them vulnerable to HIV infection. Female migrant workers work longer hours, have worse living conditions, receive less pay, and are more often sexually harassed and violated than their male counterparts. Typically, female migrants are young, between the ages of 19-29, with little formal education. Their low wages and low socio-economic status make them further vulnerable to transactional sex and HIV/STI infection.

This project, “A Safe Return: Changing Attitudes and Traditions in Vietnam ” sought to build awareness and capacity among multiple sectors (both government and private institutions) that manage the exportation of female labour to reduce the vulnerability of women to HIV. It implemented this project in collaboration with the Thai Binh People’s Committee and with migrant associations and migrant women in Thai Binh province.

For more details, see the final project report.

Objectives

The specific objectives of this project were to:

• Strengthen the capacity of the Department of Labor, Invalid and Social Affairs (DoLISA) and other key institutions (both government and private) to design and deliver improved support services for overseas migrants, including but not limited to enhanced pre-departure training programs.
• Improve the capacity of DoLISA and multiple sectors in other key institutions to promote policy dialogues and programming responses with the participation of male and female workers on issues related to workers' rights and well-being.
• Improve the capacity of DoLISA and other key institutions to assess and report on "successes and failures" of overseas migrant programs, to provide recommendations towards a safe mobility model, and to disseminate these lessons learned and recommendations broadly, both nationally and regionally.

Results

Outcome 1: Increased quality and comprehensiveness of pre-departure/return services and pre-departure training programs

The comprehensiveness of pre-departure services was improved through the incorporation of information about HIV/STI prevention for migrant workers into the orientation training agenda. Although a general government policy existed specifying that pre-departure training needed to include health care information, the actual training content was decided by the individual labour export companies and therefore normally focused only on foreign languages, working regulations, and cultural adaptation. This project, aiming to increase the comprehensiveness of pre-departure training, worked with provincial Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (DoLISA) to reinforce the policy by issuing a direction that all pre-departure trainings conducted in the province must include a section addressing HIV/STI prevention among migrants. The requirement for this newly added section then also applied to vocational training centers, where a number of trainees attend workshops prior to going to work abroad (or out of province) following their graduation. By the end of June 2008, 103 comprehensive training courses had been provided through 6 labour export companies and vocational training centers, with the participation of 2,459 (potential) migrant workers.

The teaching quality and capacity of the teachers in the labour export companies and vocational training centers were improved significantly following their participation in two train-the--trainer workshops. During these ToT trainings, the teachers were provided with professional knowledge about HIV/STI prevention and gained facilitation skills to better attract students participation in training workshops. They also were equipped with teaching supportive tools such as STI images, CDs, and a manual to use when they conducted training seminars at their work locations. These facilitating skills were applied to not only HIV/STI prevention education, but also to other topics included with the general orientation programs. Teachers at these centers indicated that they are now much more confident in teaching and discussing HIV and STI related issues during their classes.

Migrant workers’ access to key information about HIV risk was improved through the development and dissemination of a guide entitled “Depart and Return Safe.” This guide was developed to provide advice on a number of subjects to migrant workers and their families related to their overseas migration, and addressed issues that they would encounter prior to departure, during their stay abroad, and following their return home. Issues addressed in the guide include migration procedures, health care, and family relations. Five hundred copies of the manual were printed and distributed to those who attended orientation training in the province before going abroad. This document was designed in the format of a notebook-booklet so that it could be used on an every-day basis and be more accessible for reference.

The consultation skills of resource persons in the province were improved through a series of training workshops on labor export consultation that were conducted in 46 communes in Dong Hung district. These courses were designed to provide trainees with information on labor export administrative procedures and how to prepare for an effective and safe migration, as well as to build their skills for providing consultations. Participants included 138 resource people who were officers of the Veterans’, Women’s, and Farmer’s Unions. These officers normally collaborate with labour export companies to recruit migrant workers in the local communities, and provide consultation and answer questions relating to labour export from community members. Providing these resources people with updated labor export information and consultation skills, therefore, was an effective approach to make information more accessible at the community level.

Labor export administrative procedures, including loan policies, were improved following a Direction issued by the Provincial Board of Labour Exportation. This direction mobilized participation and assigned responsibilities to different sectors in managing labor export services, facilitating the administration procedures, and supporting migrant workers. The direction was developed with technical support from the Vietnam Association of Manpower Supply during the preparation for the workshop of strengthening labor export management.

Outcome 2: Improved awareness and capacity of institutions to protect workers' rights and well-being

Through their involvement in project implementation, Project Management Board members’ awareness of migrant workers’ issues and capacity to address them were improved. This in turn benefited the labour exportation process within the province, as most of the PMB members were also members of the Provincial Directing Board for Labour Exportation (PDBLE). Due to its involvement in the project, the PDBLE has demonstrated more concern about issues related to the rights, health care, and social impacts of migration, rather than simply about the economic benefits of migration. It now understands better what each sector in the province could do to address the problems of migrant workers, and joined the project team in proposing solutions to improve the situation of the migrant workers in the project sites.

Local authorities also gained deeper understanding of the “real” situation related to labour exportation and migrant workers by participating in a study tour to Taiwan. Through discussions with governmental agencies, companies, NGOs, and FBOs that work to support migrant workers in destination countries and directly with Vietnamese migrants in Taiwan, representatives from Thai Binh province were updated about the working mechanism of brokers in Taiwan, difficulties migrant workers encountered and barriers for Vietnamese migrants to protect themselves from abuse. Feedback from the delegation members during the discussions with the Taiwanese partners (as well as during workshops/meetings held in the province) showed substantial changes in their awareness of and attitudes towards migrant workers’ rights and well-being. Many recommendations were made to develop a better support system for migrants, including strengthening the cooperation between sending and destination countries, improving training on human right and worker rights in orientation trainings, and information sharing among organizations working to support migrant workers.

Training activities implemented by the project in the province contributed significantly to increasing the capacity of local partners to protect workers’ well-being. All key agencies working in labour export/migration services have benefited from these capacity building activities, which included training on HIV/STI prevention, labour export consultation skills, identifying and evaluating the impacts of labour export on families and communities, and labour export management. Also, by being directly involved in managing the project, local partners’ capacity in implementing health promotion programs was improved. There were 163 staff members from local institutions who participated in the project’s capacity building activities. These resource people are certainly providing better services to migrant workers through their professional responsibilities as governmental and private companies’ staff.

Outcome 3: Strengthened capacity to design and conduct assessments of the impacts of labour exports programs, especially of female migrant workers on their community

Conducting a situational assessment of existing labour exportation services in Thai Binh province provided the project team and the provincial Department of Health with an opportunity to improve the assessment skills of local staff members. The local staff participating in the assessment and report writing gained a broader understanding of their current labour export situation and also were able to generate recommendations for the project team to incorporate into its operational plan operation.

Eight key government staff persons from agencies such as DoLISA, Women’s Union, Farmers’ Union, and the Department for Family and Children gained greater knowledge about family dynamics and functions, the potential impacts of labour export on communities, and skills to identify and evaluate the possible impacts of migration on their own communities by attending training workshops that were designed to identify and evaluate the impacts of labour export on families and communities. Real-life situations of migrant workers who had returned home, changes in their family relationships, changes in their children’s education, and new life styles brought to community were shared and discussed among trainees. The trainees were then able to reflect on their own communities and identify what potential impacts needed to be followed up. Participants also learned how to develop tools for data collection, tested the questionnaires, were involved in in-depth interviews and discussions, and provided inputs for revising the research tools. By conducting interviews with many population groups during the research, they gained new skills on collecting data and also understood better the potential impacts that migration/labor export might create.

Lessons Learned

• Gaining the strong commitment of local partners and support from the local authority played a big role in the success of the project’s implementation. This commitment and support was achieved by making these partners more aware that the project would contribute to solving local problems and that the project’s activities would be undertaken with their input.
• Involving People’s Committee as an umbrella player to mobilize and collaborate with other local authorities enabled greater participation of multiple sectors.
• Using local staff as the resource trainers in the capacity building programs contributed significantly to the sustainability of the project.
• For programs working with migrating targets, it is imperative to work closely with local authorities to get updated information to facilitate planning, especially in locations where information is ineffectively managed.

Recommendations

While the project had established a sound foundation for better implementation and coordination among relevant players in supporting migrant workers, it still requires strong commitment at every administrative level for longer-term sustainability. The commitment of the local governments, as seen by the project team, was encouraging and therefore indicated the likelihood of long term impact. Given the emerging trend in migration, it is recommended that similar programs should be implemented in other locations where similar issues of migration and migrants are existing.