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Most Vietnamese labourers returning from work abroad are finding it difficult to earn a living in their home country.

A return home may mean manual work with low salary

A recent survey of the Institute of Labour Science and Social Affairs (ILSSA) shows that the majority of these workers have problems finding employment because they lack information about available support and work opportunities. Many of them also remain unskilled.

Trinh Thi Thu Nga, from ILSSA, said the survey was conducted with 500 participants from Phu Tho, Bac Giang, Vinh Phuc and Thai Binh provinces. All of them had worked in Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and Taiwan between 2004 and 2008.

Around 90% of people asked said that they had trouble re-integrating into the local labour market despite having made more money living and working abroad.

Only 13.5% of these labourers get support from local governments in finding a new job, while 16.3% others receive assistance from private enterprises.

As many as 83.4% of surveyed people said they were untrained workers before working abroad, while only one third had finished high school education.

These labourers have had to take out bank loans to pay off the labour service agencies in order to work abroad.

Salaries for overseas workers are usually between 5 and 6 times higher than those in Vietnam. The highest pay for overseas labourers is in South Korea, where it could reach around VND11.57 million (USD554) per month, followed by Taiwan with VND6.97 million (USD334).

Over the years, these workers have contributed a lot to their local economies.

Over the past years, these workers have brought in a considerable overseas remittance to their hometown. In 2009, Bac Giang Province brought in around VND1.135 trillion (USD54.39 million) in remittances. The figure in Thai Binh was VND800 billion (USD38.34 million), Phu Tho with VND600 billion (USD28.75 million) and Vinh Phuc with VND110 billion (USD5.27 million).

According to the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA), Vietnam has sent over 400,000 workers abroad to more than 40 countries and territories over the past 30 years.