Foreign Job Opportunities and Internal Migration in Vietnam

This paper investigates the role of
employment opportunities created by foreign-owned firms as a
determinant of internal migration and destination choice
using the Vietnam Migration Survey 2004 and the Vietnam
Household Living Standards Survey 2004. Multinomial logit
and conditional logit models are estimated to study both
origin and destination-specific characteristics of migrants.
The paper finds that the migration response to foreign job
opportunities is larger for female workers than male
workers; there appears to be intermediate selection in terms
of educational attainment; and migrating individuals on
average tend to go to destinations with higher foreign
employment opportunities, even controlling for income
differentials, land differentials, and distances between
sending and receiving areas.