Jan
13
Introduction
Filed Under 2008
Introduction
The Global Vietnamese Diaspora Blog
This blog is designed to study the Vietnamese diaspora(s) around the globe, theorizing and conceptualizing the dimensions, the characterizations, and the trajectories of the diasporic Vietnamese community.
To effectively and efficiently theorize and conceptualize the lived experiences of diasporic Vietnamese, the thematic motifs of “displacement” and “memory” are employed.
First, the motif of “displacement” will allow us to compare and contrast the Vietnamese diaspora to other and earlier forms of movement and migration (caused by military conquest, colonization, and territorial expansion) that have long been a part of Vietnam history. And because “displacement” empathically draws attention to the physical, psychological, cultural, and intellectual afflictions, [1] we opportunely have an analytical construct to cross-examine how the Vietnamese diaspora relates to and/or transcends Vietnam’s migration history and experiences.
Meanwhile, the motif of “memory” will provide us the opportunity to read how displaced Vietnamese, both past and present, have maintained their relationships with the collective memory and myth about their birth place. And because the collective Vietnamese memory directs us to a “cultural core” that is a constant though shifting entity, [2] we will be able to characterize in some manner what would count within and which would be considered integral to the “Vietnamese cultural core” across time and space. The Vietnamese “displacement” of its native culture and society – caused by colonization (that of Chinese and French rule) and internal regional division (that of the “two Dai Viets” and the “two Viet-Nams”) – is a consistent theme in the country’s history. Here, “memory” will illustrate how Vietnamese have attempted to preserve but also have elaborated its “culture core” by putting back the “place” into displacement. Yet, at the same time, putting back the “place” has also been underscored by internal debates and conflicts about what that “place” should be. In fact, it is these decolonization and unification/reunification moments that have produced the various forms of exile, including the current diaspora. Meanwhile in the Vietnamese diaspora context, “memory” will be used to conceptualize and delineate the “heterogeneity, hybridity, and multiplicity” in the diaspora. Emphasis will also be given on how the Vietnamese diaspora’s ideological sense of “returning” to and “re-sowing” its seeds in the homeland will play out, given the increased capacity to do so, such as the new international conditions and communication technologies.
Like earlier displaced Vietnamese, today’s diasporic Vietnamese have a “culture core” which is, in part, still unified via “a collective memory and myth about the homeland, including its location, history and achievements”; [3] and who still trace their common identity, language, cultural and religious beliefs and practices to a common ancestry. Yet, because communism is blamed for the separation from the native land and culture, the Vietnamese diaspora has put the “us” and “them” in tension with regard to the current communist regime’s “culture core,” specifically the way it exemplifies and personifies foreign influences and political ideology. Also in tension though more implicit is the diaspora’s construction of its identity in the host country. This has been about the diaspora’s assertions and negotiations of its right to place and space, as well as its cultural and intellectual rights to counter against the host country’s “his-story” that has tended to marginalize the discourse of who can speak and teach what about the Vietnam War and its aftermath.
In both cases, however, there are internal differences and debates within the diasporic Vietnamese community about how to engage Vietnam and how to define its cultural heritage.
In general, the blog will explore and attempt to examine questions including but not limited to:
- How does the current Vietnamese diaspora relate to and/or transcend the country’s migration history and experiences?
- What are the dimensions of the Vietnamese diaspora and are these dimensions “diasporic moments” since diasporic Vietnamese are products of different migration vintages and whose ethnicity is always in a state of flux?
- What are the ways in which Vietnamese construct/reconstruct its “culture core” including home, family, youth, gender roles, and community and anti-communist identities in the diaspora?
- How do problems, practices, realities, voices and visions of Vietnamese community development compare and contrast across and within the various diasporic Vietnamese communities around the world?
- What are the existing links among the various Vietnamese diasporic communities around the globe and do the diasporic Vietnamese media enable or disable these links?
- What are the impacts of the diaspora on the homeland and what are the impacts of opening the homeland to the diaspora?
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[1] Wanni Anderson and Robert Lee, Displacement and Diasporas: Asians in the Americas (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2005), p.11.
[2] John Whitmore, “Foreign Influences and the Vietnamese Cultural Core,” in D.R. SarDesai, Southeast Asian History: Essential Readings (Los Angeles: Westview Press, 2006), p.40.
[3] “A collective memory and myth about the homeland” is one of the common features of a diaspora, as conceptualized by Robert Cohen. See his’s Global Diasporas: An Introduction (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1997), p.26.
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Mr. Le,
I just finished reading your article in the Asia Times about the recent Nike factory strike and labor issues.
I think you should re-check the accuracy of your statistics about labor wage rates in Vietnam.
Why do you think that factory workers at SOEs in Vietnam earn MORE than factory workers at foreign-invested factories in Vietnam?
The minimum wage at foreign-invested factories is significantly higher than the minimum wage at SOEs.
Best regards,
Adam Sitkoff
Executive Director
American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam - Hanoi
Adam Sitkoff:
Thanks for your note.
If it is fair that I should recheck my numbers, I also think it is fair that you provide some numbers to support your claim (of which is a common view – that SOEs workers are underpaid).
Below is an explanation of why the actual wages at SOEs are higher than at foreign-invested enterprises (FIESs).
In brief, while the set minimum wage rate at FIESs is higher than SOEs, the set minimum wages come with maximum wages (which cannot exceed three times the minimum waged). Thus, we should look at the actual wages put in place by FIEs and SOEs.
Studies using stats from MOLISA or VLASS by both western and Vietnamese researchers find that SOEs in practice have a tendency to pay salaries near the maximum wage and add the cost to their expenses. In addition, SOEs jobs have better job security, pension plans, and more flexibility with lower effort level; though such benefit values are difficult to monetarily quantify. Moreover, these same studies find that rate of wage increase in SOEs is much higher than that of labor productivity. Actual wages at SOEs are also higher than those in the private sectors.
In contrast, while the FIE minimum rate is designed as a minimum and that FIEs are expected to designate appropriate salaries for workers based on skill levels, length of service and other factors, many FIEs paid unskilled workers at the absolute minimum, and some paid their skilled workers only 1-5% higher. FIEs are very efficient in increasing their profits and productivity but that their rate of wage increase is lower than their labor productivity. The noted studies find that FIEs have the tendency to pay salaries lower than the permitted maximum. This creates lower wage increases compared with productivity and profit levels.
In the end, FIEs’ case against SOEs is not that the latter pay lower wages. Rather, the case against SOEs is that SOEs are implementing irrational policies of which create inequalities in labor from salary discords. In addition, SOEs have no competitive edage and can’t compete internationally.
Long
Long S. Le, Ph.D.
Director of International Initiatives
Global Studies
University of Houston
Thanks for the info, keep up the good work. I look forward to reading more in the future.
Please keep these excellent posts coming.
Heya Just read the post: duction : The Global Vietnamese Diaspora; I liked it, looking forward to seeing more posts like this in the future.