Viet Nam has 6.4 million migrants aged 5 and above, accounting for 7.3% of the total population. This is lower than the number of migrants in 2009 (6.7 million people, constituting 8.5% of the population). Females still make up a higher proportion than men in the migrant population, but this pattern is gradually changing towards equilibrium. The majority of migrants are young people aged 20-39 years old (accounting for 61.8% of the total migrant population).
The Central Highlands has changed from in-migration to outmigration (with a net migration rate of -12‰). The Red River Delta and the Southeast are the two largest in-migration regions of Viet Nam. In particular, the Southeast, a developed economic region with large industrial zones, continues to be the most attractive destination for migrants, attracting 1.3 million migrants. Among 12 provinces and centrally-affiliated cities with a positive net migration rate, the highest is Binh Duong (200.4‰). Soc Trang province experience the highest negative rate (-75.0 ‰).
Migrant children are more disadvantaged than non-migrant c in accessing lower and upper secondary education. In particular, children in the interprovincial migrant group (moving from province to province) face more challenges than those in other migrant groups in terms of accessing education at all levels. In 2019, 83.9% of non-migrant children aged 11-18 attend school, compared with only 55.7% of their interprovincial migration counterparts. The percentage of migrants having technical and professional qualification has improved over the last 10 years, from 22.9% in 2009 to 37.2% in 2019, which is higher than that of non-migrants. For 2019, the proportion of migrants having technical and professional qualification is 17.5 percentage points higher than that of non-migrants. Regarding the total migrant workers in the economy, 91.4% of them are working in the service, industrial and construction sectors. This proportion is higher than the figure for non-migrants. In particular, the proportion of migrants working in the industrial and construction sectors is almost twice as much as that of non-migrants (44.9% in contrast to 27.7%).
The unemployment rate of migrants is higher than that of non-migrants (2.53% compared with 2.01%). Female migrants experience a higher unemployment rate than their male counterparts, at 2.82% and 2.20%, respectively. More than two thirds of unemployed migrants (equivalent to 69.7%) are those migrating to urban areas, while the remaining one third are those migrating to rural areas. The housing conditions of migrants are better than that of non-migrants. The proportions of people living in temporary or simple houses of these two groups are 2.8% and 7.3%, respectively. However, the per capita living space of migrants is lower than that of non-migrants (21.9sqm/person and 25.4sqm/person, respectively). Nearly half of the migrant population rents or borrows houses or apartments.