Ban on migrants is discriminatory

by Bich Huong

There is a Vietnamese proverb that goes "living peacefully in a good house helps a career flourish". However, to earn a living, many migrants are now forced to leave their hometowns for urban areas.

But how many of them wish to become a permanent part of their new surroundings?

As a fast growing city, Da Nang recently stopped people from outside from registering as permanent residents because of an overstretched infrastructure and increased crime rate.

According to Viet Nam's 2009 Population and Housing Census, the city has a population of about 887,000 people, ranking 43th in the country. The population has doubled in the last 30 years.

The more than 114,000 migrants making up 11.5 per cent of its population have registered for temporary residence. Another 14,300 migrants have registered for permanent residence.

"Along with the undeniable contributions by migrants to the city's development, migration has also caused many challenges, especially in maintaining social order and security," said Van Huu Chien, vice chairman of the municipal People's Committee.

They said 278 crimes were committed by migrant people last year, one-fourth of the total criminal cases.

Nguyen Ba Thanh, secretary of the city's Party Committee, said limiting migration to the city was needed to avoid a situation faced by other big cities. This includes overstretched roads, schools, hospitals and other infrastructure.

However, he admitted professional workers were still welcome.

Deputy director of the city's Judiciary Department Vo Thi Nhu Hoa agreed with other legal opinions that the restriction did not comply with the country's residence law.

Under Article 3 and Article 20, every Vietnamese has the right to live anywhere and register permanently in centrally-run cities [including Ha Noi, HCM City, Da Nang, Can Tho and Hai Phong] if they live for a year there, whether in a leased house or with relatives or friends.

A 24-year-old locally born man, Truong Cong Truc, said he had no trouble with migrant people but there was fringe group of homeless or unemployed people creating social disorder.

But he said those who wanted to live, work and be devoted to the city deserved to have permanent resident status.

Truc said that without permanent residence status, people would have difficulty getting their children into public schools.

He said that after graduating from a university in Da Nang, he himself had worked in HCM City and he hoped that the city would welcome him.

Dr Trinh Hoa Binh, director of the Centre for Social Opinions, Institute of Sociology, said migration was part of the development process.

"People often move to areas offering better resources, including employment, land, work and a generally better life," he said.

He added that restrictions on permanent residence could depress many migrants.

Binh said people with strong determination to live and work in the city would try to achieve their aim, even if they had to ignore the ban on migrants becoming permanent residents.

He said policymakers felt that curbing the influx of would-be workers would improve the quality of public services, administrative management and law enforcement.

However, they overlooked the fact that it would probably fail to solve urban pressures.

"The restriction is not only a barrier to disadvantaged groups, it can be classified as discrimination leading to inequality," he said. — VNS