COVID-19 and Vietnam-Laos Cross-Border Migration: Impacts and Solutions

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused great harm and difficulties to workers, especially migrant laborers. The COVID-19 crisis has shown that migrants, particularly those employed through informal agencies, lost their jobs, and were not entitled to social protection policies, including labor migration from Vietnam across the Laos border to the DPR or other countries. The article is based on a survey of over 300 quantitative samples and in-depth interviews with 28 experts in order to focus on case studies of Vietnamese migrants crossing the Vietnam-Laos border in Nghe An, Ha Tinh. Thereby the study assesses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on migrant workers across the Vietnam-Laos border in terms of employment, income, etc. From that, some solutions are proposed to restore livelihoods and stabilize the lives of migrant workers.