Research
Migration became one of the major areas of interest of ISDS since 2002 when the Insitute joined a regional team of institutions doing collaborative research on social protection in Asia, an initiative of The Ford Foundation. In this research, migrants have been addressed among those disadvantaged groups and needed better social protection. The research report has been published as a book and used by the Committee for Social Affairs of the Vietnam National Assembly.
In the following years, 2005-2007, ISDS has successfully conducted a research and published a book on social protection of migration in Vietnam with support from The Rockefeller Foundation. The book was again disseminated by the National Assembly.
During 2008-2009, the Institute has conducted a large-scale survey on the impact of internal migration on sending and receiving areas, also with the funding from The Rockefeller Foundation. The results of the survey were published in a book “From the countryside to the cities: Impact of migration on sending and receiving areas”.
At the same time, ISDS joined the comparative research project on social protection for rural – to – urban migrants that led by the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex (United Kingdom) in Vietnam and China (Chinese partner is the Fujian Normal University). The entire project is funded by The Ford Foundation.
Since 2007, ISDS started working on international migration through cooperation with the University of Western Ontario (Canada), Pai Chai University (South Korea), and Sun Yat Tien University (Taiwan). With funding from International Development Research Center (IDRC) a longitudinal research on transnational migration of Vietnamese females for work and through marriage in Asia has been conducted during three years 2007-2009. The study focuses on gaps in immigration/emigration policies and various vulnerabilities of female migrants, particularly the violations of their rights at both sending and receiving countries.
Advocacy and information sharing
Advocacy for rights and social protection for rural-urban migrants was carried the National Assembly, with ISDS’ technical support: two dissemination workshops on the issues of migrants’ vulnerabilities and rights were organized in Hanoi where participants comprised of members of the National Assembly as well as representatives of the government. A newsletter on migration and social protection was produced and disseminated to the Assembly and People’s Councils in all 64 provinces in Vietnam.
Collaboration with the Vietnam National Television resulted in two television reports on migrants’ vulnerabilities and their social protection needs. These broadcasts were aired nationwide four times in total.
For international migrants, two workshops to disseminate research findings on international labour migration and marriage migration were conducted in March 2010 and July 2011. Both workshops received wide media coverage. Along with research, ISDS has consistently sought the opportunity to work with national media in Vietnam, to help raise public awareness on the issue of migration and reduce the negative image of females who migrate for marriage. Through the meetings with representatives of government agencies or social activists and media of Taiwan or South Korea (for instance, giving an interview for KBS or for documentary filmmakers from South Korea) ISDS actively advocated for the improvement of policy regarding the protection of rights of Vietnamese immigrants in those countries.
