Why struggle for rent in the big city when the countryside offers a more relaxed life?
Migrant workers in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City are questioning their urban existence – and many are choosing the quiet life in rural areas
Treading a familiar path for women in rural Vietnam, Nguyen Thi Hiep found a factory job in dynamic Ho Chi Minh City and spent 16 years helping make shoes for Western brands such as Adidas and Nike.
Vietnam is among the world’s largest exporters of clothing, footwear and furniture, and Ho Chi Minh City, with its hundreds of thousands of migrant workers, have for decades helped power the country’s manufacturing boom.
The southern metropolis offered stable jobs with decent pay, and young women in particular flocked to garment and shoe factories, where the workforce is three-quarters female.
But as living costs surge, Hiep is joining a wave of workers rejecting the commercial hub for a quieter life back home – leaving city businesses struggling to fill their ranks.
“I have stayed in this city long enough,” Hiep, 42, said after her shift at a factory owned by Taiwan’s Pou Chen, one of the largest and best-paying shoe manufacturers in Vietnam.
“I work all day long, starting at sunrise and ending when it’s dark. But I still struggle to pay my rent.”
