Access to social services how poor migrants experience their life in contemporary vietnamese urban areas

Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol 1, No (2015) 277-290 Access to social services: How poor migrants experience their life in contemporary Vietnamese urban areas Tran Van Kham*, Pham Van Quyet** Abstract: Vietnam is on urbanization and industrialization process, and it is currently witnessed the significant migration flows between rural-urban and urban-urban nationwide The large number of migrants is the poor from rural areas who go to the urban to look for any kind of jobs, temporarily and permanently As it happened national wide, one of the critical questions appeared during the migration is that how the poor migrants experience their life in the urban life, with those social services which are more preferred and accessed by the migrants in the urban life Basing on the social inclusion approach, from survey findings with 1042 migrants in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City-Vietnam, this paper aims at identifying the life experiences of migrants in two big cities in Vietnam and suggests further research and solutions for migrant’s social inclusion through the social services accessibility Key words: Migrants; poor migrants; Vietnam; urbanization; social services; social inclusion period of 2004 to 2009 It is witnessed the changes of migration in Vietnam with rapid speed and large number as well The provincialprovincial migration had its increased rate at 14 people among a thousand as from 29 migrants among 1000 people in 2004 to 43 migrants among 1000 in 2009 Inter-region migration is also increased with 19 migrants among 1000 in 1999 to 30 migrants among 1000 in 2009 Clearly that the migrants, in any forms, are being increased year by year and it is increased with stronger speed than the normal population growth rate in Vietnam at present time (Đặng Nguyên Anh 2012; Lê Bạch Dương and Nguyễn Thanh Liêm 2011; Tổng cục thống kê 2011; United Nations 2010; Vietnam General Statistic Office 2011) And among these forms of migration, the flow from rural to urban area, in long-term and fluctuated forms, is clearly recognized and being happened with stronger levels and degree during the urbanization process in Vietnam recently Introduction*** Migration is an inevitable trend of every society that is going increasingly with more complex and difference in its forms, structure and other social impacts Migration does not only make the flow of population but also create the social impacts such as social services and welfare practice for society in general and for the migrants in particular Data taken from the Census in 2009 shows Vietnamese population reached to around 86 million, with 11.3% increasing compared to 1999 Additionally, there were around millions of migrants in the yearperiod from 2004-2009, with 50% increased in comparison to the period of 1994-1999 In 2013, the number of domestic migrants is around 1.8 millions, with 33% increased in comparison to the average number of each year in the year * Dr, VNU-University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Hanoi; email: khamtv@ussh.vnu.edu.vn ** Associate Prof.Dr, VNU-University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Hanoi; email: p.quyet3@gmail.com 277 T V Kham, P V Quyet / Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol 1, No (2015) 277-290 As the significant topic in the daily life, research on migration and its related problems are highly paid attention in social science research in Vietnam recently, from different research approaches in sociology, economics, cultural studies, urban study… Recent research on migrants focused more on the following topics in Vietnam, such as the policy system on the rural-urban migration (Đặng Nguyên Anh 2012; Lê Bạch Dương and Nguyễn Thanh Liêm 2011); the role of rural-urban migration to the rural development (ACTIONAID 2012; Đặng Nguyên Anh 2005; Ngô Thị Kim Dung 2011; Nguyễn Thanh Liêm 2007; Trần Nguyệt Minh Thu 2013; Nguyễn Văn Tiên and Nguyễn Hoàng Mai 2006; Trương Xuân Trường 2013); or the research about social problems, migration management and service models for migrants in the urban areas (ACTIONAID 2014; Duong, Linh and Thao 2011; Phạm Quỳnh Hương 2006) or overview of social inclusion of the poor migrant in the urban life in many aspects (Kham and Quyet 2015) It is clear that recent migration research in Vietnam looks at the urban migration and migrants in different perspectives: Role of migration to social development, its related social issues, and required social services for migrants However, there is lack of specific research emphasizing to the social policy and inclusion for migrants and also lack of research to identify the social service accessed by the migrants, and how they find difficulties and advantages on such service usage process as well This paper aims at identifying the migrants’ experiences to the social service in their daily life It also has the detailed analysis on the form of difficulties, and the service usage by migrants in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City From the initial research findings, this paper is expected to make the suggestions for theoretical and support models in the research topic, and also makes the other recommendations for the support network professionally for migrants in the contemporary urban life in Vietnam Theoretical methods approach and 278 research This paper is driven from the theoretical perspective of social inclusion which is widely applied in different research topics (Australian Government 2009; Hayes, Gray and Edwards 2008; Trần Văn Kham 2011) in different scopes such as migration, the social support provision for the vulnerable groups and marginalized people, and specific supports for people on the integration process This perspective is viewed from the interdisciplinary approach in social research currently Migration is known as integration process, and social inclusion is suggested as the research direction and tendency toward the sustainable development of a society, and to have the coverage supports to vulnerable groups in general and to the poor migrant in particular in the societal life Social research basing on social inclusion perspectives are popular since the late 1990s in Western social research, while many social issues were not purely and completely dealt with the economic solutions, they required the comprehensive measures which were based not only the economic solutions but also on those ones with cultural and social backgrounds Social inclusion research is known as the direction for promoting the government role on making the equal society for all and which has enough capacities on solving social issues Such research direction is applied widely in some welfare states such as Australia, Canada, Sweden, in which the welfare system is capable to make provision and where the social services are various forms and levels for different purposes Recent biannual joint social work conferences by International Federation of Social Workers and International Association of School of Social Work paid more attention to this topic and made it as prominent forum for discussions with attractions from different approaches worldwide, especially the debates around the services for vulnerable groups 279 T V Kham, P V Quyet / Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol 1, No (2015) 277-290 and request to have inclusive research and specific initiatives towards the inclusive society These recent discussions about the social inclusion and inclusive research aimed at making the social development and society for all regardless the cultural backgrounds and social status Social inclusion based research has its longterm history in the world In the early 1980s, research projects in Western countries of the UK, France and the US, and other developed countries focused more on social exclusion relating to the poverty, unemployment and political crisis (Béland 2007; Daly and Silver 2008; Estivill 2003; Gordon; Pantazis and Levitas 2006; Hills, Grand and Piachaud 2002; Levitas 2006; Levitas et al 2007; Sheppard 2006) Such direction is increasingly paid attention and applied in the other aspects of culture, society and then it is replaced with the inclusive and social inclusion perspective Social inclusion is main societal purpose in which all members are able to have social participation, to make their voice and their influences and they also have a chance to create the social contribution for development purpose (Askonas and Stewart 2000; Atkinson et al 2002; Klasen 2001; Mitchell and Shillington 2002) Social inclusion is dual dimension process: each individual is willing to and try to have social participation in society, and in other side of society also provides good conditions for all its individuals to participate and join equally and voluntarily And the social service accessing in the community and social spheres is an identified indicator for looking at the integration process of individual life in society and with others in their daily experiences Basing on such ideas and approach, this paper aims at identifying the social service accessed by migrants in their integration process in the urban life, with some specific comparison between the two contexts of the research that is considered as significant factor impacting to the inclusive process of the poor migrants Such social services are identified in terms of the general public services, the health care services and some specific social services relating to the daily experiences of the poor migrants The main research question for this paper as how the migrants access to social services in their daily life? Are there any difficulties and restrictions? Are there any impacted factors to their accessing? In order to make the explanation for such research question, this research applies the data collection methods in forms of document analysis, surveys and individual interviews with migrants in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City The survey sample of the research is presented in the table The research applies the data generation by the software of SPSS version 21.0 for the survey findings for processing the quantitative data and uses the thematic analysis for the interview responses to make the qualitative data and its explanations This research follows all ethical considerations by the Nafosted Vietnam, with approval project number I3.1-2012.11 Research participants are voluntary without any coercions, all individual information is coded and anonymous T V Kham, P V Quyet / Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol 1, No (2015) 277-290 280 Table 1: Survey sample Hanoi N % Gender (%) Male Female Educational levels (%) Illiterate Primary Secondary High school College/university Post-graduated Marital status (%) Never married Married Divorce Widowed Means of age Research findings and discussions 3.1 Social construction of migrants The sample of this research is 1042 migrants in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, in which the ratio between male and female is quite equal (51.4% and 48.6%) The mean of age among the survey sample is 32.79 years, a significant proportion of migrants in this research finished the high school level, and there is also a nearly one third of them completed the university level (28.3%) More than one third of migrant never married The other indicators describing the migrants in this research are presented as following: 3.1.1 Duration of migration The first dimension for describing the migrants in this research based on the information about the migration time in the urban area of the poor migrants, responses from the Total 644 61.8 Ho Chi Minh City 398 38.2 45.7 54.3 38.8 61.2 51.4 48.6 0.5 2.0 16.3 36.6 41.8 2.8 1.8 27.9 47.5 16.0 6.3 0.5 1.0 11.8 28.1 28.8 28.3 1.9 47.3 51.2 0.6 0.9 30.35 16.0 77.3 4.8 1.9 36.68 35.8 60.8 2.2 1.3 32.79 1042 100 survey found that the average time is 49 months, approximately years And there is different between migrants in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City with 60.3 months and 42.08 months respectively This statistics based on the gender is quite different between male and female (51.9% in compared to 45.9 months) Such information provides that the migrants have a long time working in the urban areas 3.1.2 Main job of migrants in the urban One of indicators for constructing the social status of migrants is the main job in which migrants spent more times on working for money during his/her migration In overall responses, nearly 50% of research participant shows that they work for small companies in some industrial zones Among the other half, the almost migrants work as free laborer (19.5%), and other forms of housekeepers, peddlers, etc The table shows the forms of job by migrants 281 T V Kham, P V Quyet / Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol 1, No (2015) 277-290 Table 2: The main job of migrants % by places Hanoi Workers in the industrial zones/parks*** Workers in small companies/workshops*** House-keepers*** Peddlers*** Free laborers*** Others Chi-square significant statistics 52.8 10.2 3.7 4.0 17.2 12.0 On comparing the difference between the urban areas, the job styles for migrants are also various There are more migrants working in the companies, in industrial zones/parks in Hanoi, where as there are more migrants working as the free laborers in Ho Chi Minh City, except the form of house-keeper The significant factors for making the difference between two big cities are based on the cultural, social and economic developments in which require the other forms of employment and also make the migration trends differently The difference between two places of studies in compared to the form of migrant’s jobs is closely related basing on the Chi-square test in SPSS, as all the indicators in table have their p value at 0.000 < 0.05, which states that these statistical meanings of close relationship between the place of migration and forms of jobs by migrants The jobs by male and female migrants are also different: there are more male migrants working as workers, and free laborers, while Ho Chi Minh city 35.7 17.6 1.5 6.8 23.1 15.3 p***=0.000