“Going to Thailand, Isn’t just Looking for Work”: The “Desire” of Vietnamese Peasants from Ha Tinh and Nghe An Provinces

Abstract

The phenomenon of Vietnamese peasants’ labor mobility to Thailand has been going on for more than two decades. Previous studies by Watcharee Srikham (2012) and Nancy Huyen Nguyen and John Walsh (2014) concentrated on push-and-pull factors in this phenomenon. Unemployment and low-employment, particularly in rural areas of Vietnam (push factor) along with Thailand’s lack of unskilled labor (pull factor) have been important conditions for the movement of labor from Vietnam to Thailand. However, on the basis of anthropological fieldwork data conducted from 2013 to 2015, I argue that labor mobility occurs from a process of “desire” in Vietnamese peasants. Moreover, it does not end with getting work or earning money but is connected continually with other kinds of “desires,” such the desire to as travel for adventure, to become a small entrepreneur, to settle permanently in Thailand, etc.