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SEQUENCE:19064768
CREATED:20260628T211600Z
DESCRIPTION:7/2/26 LF Panel: Race to the bottom: Vietnamese female migrant workers’ 
 vulnerability, double burden and health risks in market socialism\n\nJuly 2 
 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm PDT \nFREE\nZoom event\n\nSince the 1990s, Vietnam’s 
 export-led growth has relied heavily on young women migrating from rural 
 areas to work in the world’s major manufacturing hubs for garment and 
 footwear factories, and increasingly, electronics. Almost four decades 
 later, many of these workers face growing insecurity as they age, still 
 having to navigate unstable employment that fails to keep up with rising 
 costs, while having to care for their children in poor-quality temporary 
 migrant workers’ housing. Behind the country’s impressive economic 
 growth figures, workers toil under exploitative conditions and low pay, 
 creating vicious cycles of insecurity, forcing them to constantly search 
 for jobs that could make ends meet. At the same time, the socialist 
 state’s narratives of inclusive development and moral rhetoric of care 
 for working people fail to deliver adequate social insurance with weakening 
 social insurance policies to protect migrant workers at the bottom of the 
 global supply chains from uncertainties in late-stage capitalism. \n\nAfter 
 screening one documentary and 3 migrant worker-initiated social media clips 
 with their own voices, this session will discuss the impacts of Vietnam’s 
 global integration on the everyday lives of the female migrant workers and 
 how they seize possible work opportunities in a system fraught with risks, 
 while trying to lead a dignified life for themselves and their families and 
 to empower each other. \n\n4 clips total (around 15 minutes)\nFirst clip: 
 Union of Catholic Asian News (7 min): Vietnam’s workers leave cities for 
 rural hometowns as economic woes increase 
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpHAA0jcZx8\n3 Instagram clips: 
 https://www.instagram.com/thaochonsonglanh?igsh=aWZvNTI5dzRxMzZ3\n– 
 Dinner of 13,000 VND (showing a meager dinner of a migrant mother and her 
 two children, and their need for cultural entertainment)\n– Dinner of 
 65,000 VND for a Migrant Mother and Two Children at a rental place in Bình 
 Dương province (showing a lot of expenses that a migrant mother has to 
 pay for her family)\n– The process to create an Instagram channel (an 
 initiative of a female migrant worker to use social media to document their 
 lives and her willingness to share with others)\n\nAngie’s bio:\n\nDr. 
 Angie Ngọc Trần was born and raised in Saigon, Vietnam. She obtained a 
 doctorate in political economy at the University of Southern California and 
 has been teaching at CSU Monterey Bay since 1996. She has researched and 
 published on transnational labor migration and resistance in Vietnam and 
 Malaysia, as well as the farm guestworkers program between the US and 
 Mexico. Her 2013 book, Ties that Bind: Cultural Identity, Class, and Law in 
 Vietnam’s Labor Resistance, chronicles over 100 years of labor movements, 
 domestic labor migration, and resistance in Vietnam since French colonial 
 rule to Vietnam’s market socialism in the 21st century. Her 2022 book, 
 Ethnic Dissent and Empowerment: Economic Migration between Vietnam and 
 Malaysia, integrates ethnicity, class, gender, religion and cultural 
 resources, and third space of dissent and empowerment of five different 
 ethnic groups in Vietnam while working as guestworkers in Malaysia and 
 after they return to Vietnam. During and after Covid-19, she published 
 articles to expose female worker vulnerabilities, exploitative and abusive 
 working conditions and sexual violence, under the Vietnam-Saudi labor 
 agreement that sends Vietnamese female workers to work as maids in Saudi 
 Arabia. Her 2026 book chapter, “Weakening of Social Protection in 
 Vietnam: Labor Legislation, Cicada Capital, Civil Society,” analyzes 
 creeping marketization, privatization, and financialization of social 
 protection in Vietnam, leaving workers scrambling to fend for themselves 
 and their families. Her current project on “H-2A Mexican Agricultural 
 Guestworkers: Navigating opportunities and risks in California and 
 improving quality of life in Mexico” exposes not only employers’ 
 control, exploitation and sexual harassment/violence, but also how 
 farmworkers navigate the system to empower themselves, their families and 
 communities. \n\nDr. Angie Ngọc Trần, Ph.D.\nProfessor, Political 
 Economy\n[She/her/ella/cô (in Vietnamese)]\n\nBio and Publications: 
 https://researchprofiles.csumb.edu/en/persons/angie-ngoc-tran\nAuthor of 
 Ethnic Dissent and Empowerment: Economic Migration between Vietnam and 
 Malaysia, University of Illinois Press, 2022\nEar to Asia Podcast (May 
 2024)\nSocial Sciences and Global Studies Department\nCalifornia State 
 University, Monterey Bay\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2026/06/28/18887025.php
SUMMARY:Panel: Race to the bottom: Vietnamese female migrant workers’ & Market Socialism
LOCATION:Link At 
 \nhttps://laborfest.net/2026/event/vietnam-working-class-voices-history/
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2026/06/28/18887025.php
DTSTART:20260628T220000Z
DTEND:20260629T000000Z
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