Between hope and exploitation

For many years, labour migration from Vietnam to Germany has been hailed as a model of international cooperation. At first glance, the arrangement seems to be mutually beneficial: Germany gains the skilled workers it so urgently needs, while Vietnam profits from the remittances its labour migrants transfer to family members as well as the skills and qualifications they acquire. Yet behind this migration policy success story lies an unequal system – one that often leaves Vietnamese migrant workers facing high costs, dependency and exploitative conditions. Migration expert Mimi Vu examines these tensions, highlighting the urgent reforms required.

The situation today:

• There is a stark divide between regular migration of skilled workers and the far larger group of low-skilled workers who arrive in Germany via informal channels, with the latter often ending up in precarious employment with no legal protection.
• Migrants are often forced to pay exorbitant recruitment fees that are nearly impossible to pay off on low wages. This traps them in years of debt bondage to recruitment agencies and people smugglers.
• Women and minors are particularly vulnerable, being seen as “commodities” and often exploited at every turn. This systematic sexual and economic exploitation causes serious physical and psychological consequences.
• Dubious online job offers, promising easy entry and high wages are used by human traffickers and exploitative employers to lure vulnerable migrants.

Paving the way forward together

• Structural change requires coordinated action between the countries involved. The isolated measures we have seen so far fall short.
• Information campaigns conducted in migrants’ regions of origin must be credible, use accessible language and be embedded in local communities – only then will the information reach potential migrants before they leave the country.
• Safe, affordable legal migration channels must be created and existing channels expanded and enhanced. Only by making legal routes more accessible than illegal ones can the business model employed by unscrupulous recruitment agencies be effectively undermined.
• To regulate labour migration, Germany and Vietnam should make the use of government-certified agencies mandatory and establish enforceable standards at every step of the way – from recruitment to integration.
• Migration must not become a business built on the backs of the most vulnerable. Migration is an expression of hope, courage and the desire to build a better future – and it is high time that policy reflected this reality.

The opinions and statements of the guest author expressed in the article do not necessarily reflect the position of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.