CHALLENGES FOR MIGRANT WORKERS, ESPECIALLY FOR FAMILIES WITH SMALL CHILDREN

5.4 CHALLENGES FOR MIGRANT WORKERS, ESPECIALLY FOR FAMILIES WITH SMALL CHILDREN

Tran Thi Hong Xuan, a woman of age 29 from Soc Trang Province is married to a man from Dong Thap province. She has two children, one is nice years old and the other is eight months. The couple moved to Can Tho in 2008. Her husband sells sweet breads at O Mon district, about 25 km from the centre of Can Tho. She used to serve as a domestic maid, but now Xuan stays at home to take care of the small child. They rent a tiny room which does not have enough light: they had to carve two holes on the wall of the room and leave a hole on the roof to get some sun light. Their income is chancy at around one million dongs per month. They have to pay 350,000 dongs for rent. The coming school year for their first child will cost about one million to start school fee, books and stationery, uniform, pupil insurance, etc., Xuan told us that during the three months of the rainy season, they did not have enough food. She borrowed 500,000 dongs from the landlord for a month and had to pay back 600,000 dongs. These recent months, the small baby got sick. It cost 400,000 to buy medicine and take the baby to the hospital three times. Her baby does not have the ticket for small children to get free health care because their household is registered in Soc Trang. The couple have never been invited to any meeting of the local community. Xuan wants her first child to get school fee waiver as other poor households could have, and the second child to get free health care like other children under six years old. Tran Thi Hong Xuan, rental house range, Area 3, Bui Huu Nghia ward The case of Xuan implied challenges and vulnerability that migrant workers are facing: • Lack of access to public services such as health care and education due to without household registration at the local administrative unit of the destination. The migrants have to return to their home province to get a verification and recommendation to forward the patient to the hospitals in the destination. However, they could not afford these expenses including traveling cost. This leads to the fact that even though the government has the policy on providing free health care for children under the age of six, in fact these migrant households do not benefit from this policy. • Migrant households often do not have secured jobs or employment. They work as vendors or manure labour with very low income. These are poor households do not benefit from any of the government’s social policies for the poor as these policies do not address migrants as a target group. They often have to pay a higher price for utilities as set by landlords. • Local authorities said they are not responsible for migrants; only local police keep track on the number, the list of full name and origin as reported by landlords for security control in the area. In fact, migrants’ concerns or problems are not “scope of responsibility” by local authorities where they migrate to. • Migrants do not participate in any of those activities organized by the local people. This separation restricts access to information of these migrants and their opportunity of participating in the local life and community events as well as accessing important available local resources and increasing social capitals. • Women who have small children face more challenges as they do not have any support from their families who live far away. Page 24

5.5 CHALLENGES FOR SINGLE WOMEN AS HEAD OF THE HOUSEHOLDS