Vietnam Update 2009

Migration Nation
19-20 November 2009
University House Common Room
Australian National University, Canberra

Call for Papers

Migration has played a significant role in defining the shape of contemporary Vietnamese society. In the nation’s recent past, millions have migrated domestically and internationally as a result of conflict, ideological struggle, and epochal nation-building projects. In the wake of reform, comparable numbers are on the move in association with a new migratory scenario characterised by underdevelopment, inequality, opportunity, and the aspiration to social mobility.

Contemporary Vietnamese migration is marked by a proliferation of sending locales and receiving destinations as migrants move between an increasing variety of points within the country and across its borders. Population movements associated in earlier scholarly literature largely with war-induced dislocation and nation-building initiatives are now easily matched in both size and complexity by an immense variety of migration types. These migrations are motivated by dynamics including the penetration of national and global capital into previously secluded regions; the processes of urbanisation and industrialisation; and the inequalities and opportunities associated with Vietnam’s structural position in the Indochinese, Asian and global economies.

These forces are producing rural to urban migration for seasonal or more permanent work in the building, industrial and service sectors; circular and permanent migration to Cambodia and Laos for both skilled and unskilled labour, trade, investment and resource exploitation; transnational labour migration to East Asia and Malaysia; marriage migration to South Korea and Taiwan; and educational migration to a great variety of destinations. In addition to these outmigrations, one must also take account of the significant effect on the Vietnamese homeland of return migration and the flow of economic and social capital from the refugee and labour diasporas.

For the 2009 update, the organisers seek papers that consider these and other contemporary and historical Vietnamese migratory flows in a critical and comparative light. We invite presenters to respond to one or a combination of key themes which we have outlined, and elaborated with indicative (but not exclusive) sub-topics, below.

1. Mapping the Landscape

The landscape of historical and contemporary Vietnamese migration is dynamic and complex. In the light of new evidence, historians continue to debate the meaning of significant migratory events such as 1954. Meanwhile other migrations, such as those within Indochina, or those from one highland region to another, have been relatively neglected. Rural to urban migration is a growth area for current research, and yet a clear picture of this phenomenon has yet to emerge. Under this topic heading, we invite papers that help us to make sense of the causes, routes and meanings of historical and contemporary Vietnamese migrations. Possible sub-topics include:

• continuities and ruptures in migration patterns from past to present
• debates in the historiography of migration
• mapping new sending and receiving regions
• new and neglected migration trajectories

2. Policy and Governance

Current Vietnamese migration is arguably shaped more by economic factors and familial and individual decisions than by the state. Nevertheless, population movements are also a response to the vision of national development favoured by Hanoi. Under this topic we wish to examine how voluntary population movements intersect with policy priorities and regulatory regimes in both Vietnam and in nations receiving Vietnamese labour and other migrants. Possible foci for papers under this topic include:

• migration policy versus migration practice
• migration and industrialisation/urbanisation policy
• regulatory mechanisms and measures in Vietnam, Malaysia, South Korea and Taiwan
• returned/connected migrants as an interest group
• migrant 'cosmopolitanisation' in the cities and overseas as a political challenge

3. Economics and DevelopmentArguably its migratory patterns are now in character with the Vietnam's "normalised" status as a developing Asian nation. Under this topic we wish to explore how contemporary Vietnamese migrations both respond to and shape socioeconomic conditions in the cities and countryside.

Suggested sub-topics include:

• the macro-structural context for migration
• segmented and gendered labour markets
• the global financial crisis
• remittances
• demographic and environmental pressures

4. Local and Household Experiences

In this topic we wish to focus on the individual and family experience of the macro-structures that form the wider context for Vietnamese migration. In this micro context, migrants typically possess situated and partial understandings of the risks and opportunities connected to certain migration pathways. Compatriots already settled in the cities or overseas may inform their decisions and aid in their resettlement. Those who stay behind may also experience local social and economic transformations as a result of cumulative emigration from their home villages or towns. Suggested sub-themes:

• individual and collective decision-making
• household risk diversification
• migrant networks and social capital
• new kinship arrangements across space
• transformations of gender identities and the division of labour at home

5. Diasporas and Transnationalis

A significant number of Vietnamese emigrants belong to permanently or semi-permanently settled overseas communities such as the refugee diaspora in the West or the transnational labour and bride diasporas in Asia. Under this heading, we wish to focus on the significance of these extraterritorial populations from the point of view of the homeland. That is to say, to what extent has Hanoi responded to the risks and opportunities associated with re-engaging the Vietnamese diaspora(s)? Has the presence led to a shift in the way national identity is conceptualised in the homeland? Possible topics for investigation include:

• new transnational identities and relationships
• Vietnamese transnational citizenship?
• transnational marriage and families across borders
• virtual migrant worlds: transnational media and communications
• non-Vietnamese expatriate communities in Vietnam (business, educational, etc)

Proposal Submissions

Contributors should send their proposals and a one page CV to Dr Ashley Carruthers by 15 May 2009.
Email: ashley.carruthers@anu.edu.au

Each proposal should be no longer than 600 words. We are seeking papers that:

• make a substantive empirical engagement with contemporary or historical Vietnamese migrations
• specify their methodologies and offer testable hypotheses
• offer a comparative perspective on aspects of Vietnamese migration
• combine two or more of the questions and themes outlined above
• ake an interdisciplinary perspective on migration

Please note that paper submissions must nominate a specific topic or combination of topics outlined in the call for papers. Submissions that fail to do so will not be eligible for consideration for inclusion in the Update. The conference organizers will collectively make the final decision on which proposals to accept. We will then extend invitations to the authors of the selected proposals to prepare and present their papers to the conference. The organizers reserve the right to reject papers presented and also to solicit papers, if necessary, from individuals who did not submit proposals. Some funding for travel and accommodation is available and details will be discussed later with each paper presenter.

Paper Specifications

The paper itself should be submitted 30 days before the date of the conference.

The paper should not exceed 10,000 words and it should include appropriate bibliography and citations. It should be as close as possible to a final draft of a paper written for scholarly peer review as possible. Each paper should include an abstract of 200 words.

Presentation and Publication

We envisage about ten paper presentations during a one and a half day workshop in Canberra on 19-20 November 2009. The conference will also have two presentations about recent political and economic developments in Vietnam.

At the Update each author will have approximately 40 minutes to summarise what her/his paper argues and the evidence used. The full text of the paper may be included, subject to any necessary revisions to meet publication requirements, in a refereed book that we hope will be published within a year after the conference.

Conference Organisers

For further information, please contact any of the following organisers:

Convenor:Ashley Carruthers, School of Archaeology & Anthropology, Faculty of Arts.
Email: ashley.carruthers@anu.edu.au

Philip Taylor, Dept. of Anthropology, RSPAS, The Australian National University.
Email: philip.taylor@anu.edu.au

David Koh, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore.
Email: davidkoh@iseas.edu.sg

David Marr, Division of Pacific and Asian History, RSPAS, The Australian National University.
Email: dgm405@coombs.anu.edu.au

Li Tana, Division of Pacific and Asian History, RSPAS, The Australian National University.
Email: tana.li@anu.edu.au

Ben Kerkvliet, Dept. of Political and Social Change, RSPAS, The Australian National University.
Email: ben.kerkvliet@anu.edu.au

Thai Duy Bao, Faculty of Asian Studies, The Australian National University.
Email: bao.thai@anu.edu.au