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Tensions of Transnationalism “Return Migrants’ Floating Lives”

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Tensions of Transnationalism “Return migrants’ floating lives” By: Ngoc Tuong Anh Duong (Ha) Contemporary Asian Studies Graduate School of Social Sciences (GSSS) UVA ID: 10220356 Supervisor: Dr. C.H Harris Submission: 27 June 2016 Word count body of text: 23827 Abstract Return migration is for most returnees in this research only a temporarily return. The purpose of this thesis is to determine return migration should no longer be viewed as the end of the migration cycle; rather it portrays one stage in the migration process. Unlike most transnational studies that centre on identity issues of migrants, this thesis examines transnationalism in relationship with return migration, flexible citizenship, Guanxi and the power relationship between the new transnational elite group and the Vietnamese authoritarian government. I argue return migration creates different forms of transnationalism and can lead to a form of flexible citizenship. Moreover, the return of the elite group creates tensions between the state and the elite group. These tensions enforce returnees to find new migration strategies. As a result, returnees will choose a flexible migration strategy where they can maintain links in both Vietnam and their home in the West. As transnational migrants, returnees will go back and forth regularly between Vietnam and their home in the West. This way they can benefit from the best of both worlds: economic, political and legal security in the West and maintaining business and social networks in Vietnam. Preface Anybody who has ever visited Ho Chi Minh City, must have recognised the traffic without rules. With over 4 million motorbikes, Ho Chi Minh City is known to have very busy, and often times chaotic, traffic. Since Vietnam joined the WTO, there are more imported cars than ever. Imagine yourself riding in your new car in downtown Ho Chi Minh City, where motorbikes come from right, left and make it almost impossible for you to move forward. Although, you are safe in your big car, you can not trust traffic around you. After 10 minutes standing at one place, a traffic police comes to you and tells you to leave and gives you a fine. You don’t understand why you get this fine so you ask him whether he could explain what rule you have violated. The traffic police could not tell you what rule you have violated. He tells you if you don’t pay the fine right now, you have to come to the police station. You don’t want to get in trouble so you pay the fine, in order to get away clean and to leave the crowded place. The only place where you can drive quietly and safely is in the expatriate neighbourhood in the suburbs of Ho Chi Minh City. You decide to avoid driving your car in downtown Ho Chi Minh City in the future. Next time when you go to downtown you will go on your motorbike instead of your car. The traffic story of Ho Chi Minh City pretty much reflects the contemporary society of Vietnam: no clear laws and rules, corruption, powerful authority and a minority of people who are driving in cars. This thesis will illustrate the stories of the people in these cars: Overseas Vietnamese and International Vietnamese citizens who return migrated to Vietnam. Let the ride begin. Table of Contents 1. Introduction 1-10 1.1. Return migration and Research questions 3-5 1.2. Methodology and Informants 5-8 1.3. Being an Overseas Vietnamese researcher in Vietnam 8-10 2. Historical background 11-24 2.1. Resistance to foreign powers 11-12 2.2. The Vietnam War and Life in Saigon 12-16 2.3. From a centralised planned economy to Doi Moi era 17-23 2.4. Conclusion 23-24 3. Motivations to return migrate to Vietnam 25-33 3.1. Motivations of Overseas Vietnamese to return to Vietnam 25-30 3.2. Motivations of International Vietnamese citizens to return 30-33 to Vietnam 3.3. Conclusion 33 4. How do returnees experience their return to Vietnam? 34-52 4.1. Vietnam in transition and the Dai Gia lifestyle 34-39 4.2. Experiences in professional life 39-44 4.3. Returnees’ position in the Vietnamese society 44-52 4.4. Conclusion 52 5. Future decisions 53-58 5.1. Flexible citizenship 53-58 5.2. Conclusion 58 6. Conclusion and Discussion 59-63 Bibliography 64-73 Appendix 74-81 Chapter One: Introduction In November 2015, several Vietnamese news outlets highlighted that Vietnam is currently facing a brain drain. The news about the brain drain was a response to an article about a game show called Duong len dinh Olympia, a Vietnamese television show where the most talented high school students compete weekly with each other. The winners of this show get a full scholarship to Australia. According to the article about this game show, history has shown that 12 of the 13 winners of this show stay abroad after their studies in Australia (Kha 2015). Several news outlets and the Vietnamese National Assembly highlighted that this phenomenon of staying abroad is also visible under the rest of the highly educated Vietnamese overseas students (BBC 2015). A heated debate erupted among Vietnamese people over the choice of the highly educated overseas students to stay abroad instead of returning to Vietnam to contribute to nation building (Tuoi Tre News 2015). Nation building is viewed in this study as the long-term process of building the social, economic, political foundations of a state (Kim 2007:114). Therefore, the Vietnamese government add to the definition of nation building, that the state should be build following the ideology of the Vietnamese Communist Party (CPV) (Chinh Phu 2011). The Vietnamese National Assembly used the article about the game show as an example of Vietnam failing to use talents (Tuoi Tre News 2015). According to the Vietnamese National Assembly, Vietnam does not attract enough highly skilled overseas students to return to Vietnam. While most of the highly skilled overseas students indeed decide to stay abroad after their studies, a small percentage do decide to come back to Vietnam. According to an article written by Hoai Nam, the numbers of Vietnamese overseas students who come back increase as Vietnam’s economy is transforming and the country is integrating in the world economy (Hoai Nam 2014). During the early 2000s, only 20 % of the students who have studied abroad returned to Vietnam after their studies. Since the recession in the United States and the economic developments in Vietnam in 2008, the percentage of students who came home increased to 40% (Hong 2009). Even though many overseas students decide to stay abroad, the number of overseas students who return is increasing. Hence, the numbers of 1.5 and second- generation overseas Vietnamese returning to Vietnam to work and live is also increasing. These are children of first-generation Vietnamese immigrants who fled the 1 country after the communist victory in 1975 (Koh 2015, p 173). Since Vietnam is implementing several laws and policies to draw back overseas Vietnamese, the number of return migrants among the 1.5 and second-generation Overseas Vietnamese has been increasing (Nguyen-Akbar 2014:181). In this research, I analyse the return migration of two different groups return migrants. The first group consists of highly educated Vietnamese citizens who have studied and worked abroad; this group is called the International Vietnamese citizens in this thesis. The second group consists of the 1.5 and second-generation Overseas Vietnamese, who are grouped together as Overseas Vietnamese in this thesis. I will discuss both groups further in the section of Methodology and Informants. In January 2016, I conducted 3 months of fieldwork in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam in order to analyse the lives of 29 International Vietnamese citizens and Overseas Vietnamese after their return to Vietnam. This thesis highlights how motivations to return migrate and experience of return migration influence International Vietnamese citizens and Overseas Vietnamese’ future decisions in the migration cycle. I will mainly focus on the very wealthy returnees who live in the expatriate hub of Ho Chi Minh City. I argue this is an emerging higher social class in Vietnam. This social class, also called the Dai Gia (Wealthy family) is unlike the previous elite, not connected to the current CPV. The term Dai Gia refers to wealthy people in the Vietnamese society. I believe that the re-entrance of Vietnam in the world economy and neoliberalism has created this new social class. By portraying these returnees’ lifestyle and the experiences in their daily life, this thesis will show how these experiences have led to their future decisions to live a transnational life, floating as astronauts between Vietnam and the Western world, but not belonging exclusively to one place. These analyses will contribute to the knowledge of return migration and transnational studies. Unlike most transnational studies that centre on identity issues of migrants, this thesis examines transnationalism in relationship with return migration, flexible citizenship, Guanxi and the power relationship between the new transnational elite group and the Vietnamese authoritarian government. According to the concept of transnationalism, migrants never quite arrive at their destination because they never leave home (Ley and Kobayashi 2005). Ong (1999) introduced the theory of flexible citizenship. This theory shows how highly mobile could live a transnational life shuttling between two countries in order to obtain best of both 2 worlds. Finally, Guanxi refers to social networks. The phrase “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know” describe the importance of social networks in the Chinese society. While the Vietnamese media outlets focus on the departure of the highly educated overseas students, very little attention has been paid to the return of highly educated returnees.
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