VietNamNet Bridge – Most labor-exporting countries are considered poor. The image of these countries is not bright internationally. It is the responsibility of Vietnamese leaders to put an end to this situation as soon as possible.

Asia - Pacific, also known as East Asia, has been developing dynamically in the past 40 years. Industrialization has spread from Japan to South Korea, Taiwan, and mainland China and to many countries in Southeast Asia. The process is driven by the bustling move of capital, technology and business knowledge from advanced countries to countries far behind.

In recent years, another factor has been increasingly prominent in that vivid picture. It is labor. This element is moved from the developing to the developed countries or it goes upstream to capital, technology and business knowledge.

But in the past 40 years, some countries have turned the flow, from the position of labor-exporting to labor-importing countries. This phenomenon shows the level of development of these countries and sometimes A poor picture of others.

In East Asia, labor export began in the 1970s with male workers from the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia working in the construction industry in the Middle East and Vietnamese labor working in the countries in Eastern Europe.

In the 1980s, labor movement within East Asia began to rise, with female workers from Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam working in Taiwan, Singapore and Thailand, then to Japan and South Korea.  In the 1980s and 1990s, the main job of these women was housework and then it expanded to other areas such as care for the elderly, served in the restaurant, etc ...

In 2012, the Philippines exported about 1.8 million workers, Indonesia with about 190,000 people. Vietnam in 2013 exported 90,000 workers. Compared with the Philippines and Indonesia, the number of overseas Vietnamese workers was much less, partly because of the smaller population. But in Asian markets alone, the number of workers from Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand were roughly equivalent.

In developed countries in East Asia, the economic structure is rapidly transferring into industries using much capital, technologies and intellectual labor, and shifting the labor-intensive industries abroad. However, many industries using unskilled labor with large scale should not be transferred abroad, especially in areas such as construction, restaurants and care services for the elderly.

Since 1980, Japan has been facing labor shortages in the areas but it did not positively import foreign labor owing to worries of security because unskilled labor from abroad often have difficulty in language and cultural disagreements. Japan only accepted overseas trainees (155,000 people by the end of 2013), who had a certain level of education and were guaranteed by Japanese companies. Because of this policy, and because of the large demand for unskilled labor, a large number of foreign workers illegally entered Japan.

South Korea also began lacking unskilled labor from the early 1990s. They also restricted migrant workers, but in 2004 this country began issuing work permits to foreigners under agreements with the labor exporting countries. At the end of 2012, South Korea had 600,000 foreign workers, including 550,000 unskilled ones, mostly from the Philippines and Vietnam.

Taiwan began importing foreign workers since 1989, initially only in the construction industry, but now the majority of foreign workers are employed in the manufacturing industry. In 2013, Taiwan hired 490,000 unskilled foreign workers, mainly from Indonesia and Vietnam.

The case of Thailand is very special. In the 1970s, they began exporting labor, but in the late 1990s - after a period of rapid growth - they stopped labor export to begin importing labor, mainly from Myanmar.

Thus, the flow of labor in East Asia has two characteristics. The first is the group of countries exporting manpower in the short period of time and now import labor, such as South Korea and Thailand. The second group is the countries that have been exporting labor until now, like the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Viewed from the position of overseas workers, there are a number of important points. Firstly, unskilled labor export to developed countries especially the newly industrialized economies such as South Korea and Taiwan usually have to work in the difficult environment, workers' rights are often compromised because labor export is not well organized, without the commitment of employers and the supervision of local authorities.

Secondly, because of their limited knowledge and education, it is difficult for overseas workers to adapt to social and cultural conditions in the host countries. Many people are frustrated with life situations and some of them violate the law, affecting the image for labor exporting countries. Also, with the first point, these workers are more likely to be exploited in a foreign country.

Thirdly, labor-exporting countries are mainly the countries that are unsuccessful in the economic development strategy. With low levels of education, the people of this country are usually worried working abroad. So, if there are jobs at home, they would have chosen to stay home.

Fourthly, so far, the labor exporting countries have not had added labor export into their general economic development strategy.

For Vietnam, excluding the period of exporting labor to Eastern European countries, its labor export increased quickly from the late 1990s and mainly to East Asia. Since 2001, annually about 70,000 people were sent abroad. The media has reported many tragic cases of overseas workers.

Most labor-exporting countries are considered poor. Therefore, the image of these countries is not bright internationally. It is the responsibility of Vietnamese leaders to put an end to this situation as soon as possible.

As noted above, South Korea and Thailand have succeeded in shifting the position of the labor-exporting countries to labor-importing ones. In contrast, the Philippines is a typical example of the country that continues to export labor and is also typical of economic stagnation.

Due to aggressive investment in Vietnam, by the end of 2014, the Koreans living in Vietnam totalled more than 150,000. In South Korea, by late 2012 there were over 120,000 Vietnamese, of which nearly 26,000 illegal residents. In addition to several thousand students, most Vietnamese people in Korea are unskilled workers or women who married to native men, mainly for economic reasons.

There is a contrast in relations between Vietnam and South Korea: South Koreans go to Vietnam as employers while Vietnamese go to South Korea as hired workers. The Vietnamese are hired workers in their country and abroad.

In the mid-1960s, Seoul was not more developed than Saigon. Now it is different.

The responsibility of political leaders is to soon put an end to this situation.

Prof. Tran Van Tho

DNSGCT