After the New Year holiday, villages in central Vietnam have become quiet
because young people have left home to the north, the south and even overseas
to work. In many villages, there are only the elderly and younger kids.

After helping his mother prepare the feast for Ram Thang
Gieng (15^th day of the first lunar month), Tran Van Nam, 20, in
Thanh Long commune, Thanh Chuong district, in the central province of Nghe An
arranged his belongings to go to the national highway to catch a coach to the
southern province of Binh Duong to work in an industrial zone.

Nam’s
mother didn’t want her son to go to the south but her family is too poor to not
allow her son to seek work. Nam’s
father died many years ago, leaving his wife and three children. Graduating
from junior high school, Nam’s
eldest brother moved to the south and got married there. Two years later, his
sister also headed to the south. .

“He must go to the south to earn a living. All young people
in this village go to the south,” the mother said.

Seeing Nam
off at National Highway 46, Lan was partly consoled when she saw hundreds of
mothers and fathers also seeing their children off to the south.

Thanh Chuong is among the poorest districts in Nghe An
province. Local people have only one job – growing rice. However, they only
earn just enough to live from farm work.

Most of young people go to the south to work in industrial
zones after graduating from junior high school. Many pupils have to quit school
to follow their brothers and sisters.

“The youth don’t want to grow rice anymore. They want to
seek jobs at factories if they can’t study anymore. The people who have worked
in the south call for their relatives to join them. Young people in my commune
follow each other to head to the south to earn their living,” said an official
of Thanh Tung commune, Thanh Chuong district.

Part of the youth in central provinces
go to Laos and China
to work.

On the 18^th day of the first lunar month, a Vinh
city (Nghe An) – Mong Cai (Quang Ninh) coach was full. There were 25 Thai
ethnic men from Tuong Duong district, Nghe An province on the bus.

One of them, Vi Van Cho, 25, said that youngsters in his
commune – Nhon Mai – have now chosen China,
not southern Vietnam.
They go to China
through Mong Cai to work at plastic factories.

“If we work hard, we can earn VND5-6 million ($250-270) a
month, a little more than earning in the south. However, we can save more money
because we don’t have to engage in drunken parties. We worked for two years in
the south but we didn’t save a penny because of drinking and parties,” Cho
said.

Other people go to Laos to work in rubber farms owned
by Vietnamese.

Not only young people but middle-aged men in the central region
leave their fields to their wives to go to Laos,
Thailand, China, etc.

Nghe An province authorities said that after Tet they have
to deal with 800 applications for passports a day. Local people need passports
to go to Thailand, Laos, South Korea,
Taiwan, Japan, Russia, etc. to work.

Leaving home after Tet has been a “whirlwind” in central Vietnam
for years. This “whirlwind” has helped change the face of many villages but it
also creates an absence of young people in the villages.

Coming to central
provinces, one will see only women and children
working on the fields. Some fields are left fallow because of labor shortages.

PV