Labour Migration of Tay and Nung People in the Vietnam-China Border Area in Lang Son Province Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Under the influence of Vietnam’s Doi Moi (1986) policies, the market economy, and border trading development, ethnic minorities’ cross-border labour migration has flourished. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Tay, and the Nung in the border area of Lang Son province were two ethnic groups with strong cross-border labour migration in both scale and frequency. This activity has had a profound impact on the socioeconomic life of the province’s border area. Since the beginning of 2020, due to the pandemic, these two ethnic groups’ labour migration to China had almost stopped. The pandemic has had a great impact on people’s situation and the trend of labour migration. This is a new issue that has not been studied in-depth. From the perspective of ethnology and anthropology and based on field data, the article analyses and clarifies some key movements in Tay and Nung people’s labour migration in the border area of Lang Son province before and during the pandemic.