Female Migrants in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) – A look at gender perspective

As a result of the economic reforms that were introduced in Vietnam in 1986, the country has grown economically. However, due to a bias toward development policies which have been mainly concentrated in urban areas, the economic gap between rural and urban areas has rapidly widened over time. More job opportunities and better living conditions in the city, as well as low productivity in agriculture, have caused people to move to the major cities. Consequently, rural to urban migration has become one of the dominant flows of internal migration in the country in recent years. This migration stream not only has increased in scale but also in its complexity. Particularly, the age of the migrants has become younger as many young people become involved in this flow. Moreover, the number of female migrants outnumbers that of male migrants, and migration has become less selective in terms of education as both more and less educated people migrate. Also, not only the rich but the poor take part in this movement. This paper considers the gender differences in term of rural-urban migration flow to Ho Chi Minh city as well as their economic, social and cultural adjustment in order to provide deep insights into the lives of female migrants in the city.