Children follow temporary migrants. Marginalized population in the city

Hoang Kim Dzung, Center for Community Health and Ecology Environment

In the context of rapid urbanization, many temporary workers immigrate into Ho Chi Minh City with their families. Most of them are manual or blue-collar workers with low education and wages. Their children are disadvantaged in terms of both social welfare and individual wellbeing. Many of them drop out of school, have difficulties accessing social services, and lack individual identification in the government registration system. Many of them become street children and are more vulnerable than their peers in the city. The causes of this situation are poor household income and overloaded infrastructure and social services, particularly the so-called household registration system. Other factors such as geographic differences, religion, and minority culture also influenced childcare, development and protection of children of migrant workers. These facts call for a reform of migrant policies and social welfare in Vietnam. However the solutions are still puzzling.