Newsletter 2: October 2008
Migration and Social Protection

 
  Social protection for rural-urban migrants in an era of increasing population mobility and socioeconomic transformation: The experience of China and Vietnam compared  
 
Institute for Social Development Studies, Vietnam
http://isds.org.vn/home.asp
 
 
Center for Population and Development Research, Fujian Normal University, China www.fjtu.edu.cn/contents/English/
 
  Project summary  
 

The project is designed to document and assess existing programs of social protection for rural-urban migrants in China and Vietnam as well as to explore pathways to extend and institutionalize best social protection practices. The project focuses on three core themes: (i) the needs of migrants for social protection in the context of increasing population mobility caused by the market reforms; (ii) policies and practices of social protection - from ad hoc intervention to institutional response; and (iii) policy and theoretical implications

  
 

Project activities for the period June 1st – August 31st 2008

 
 

The research team has been set up in each country: ISDS researchers include Dr. Le Bach Duong, Dr. Nguyen Thanh Liem, and Ms. Nguyen Phuong Thao; the team at the Center for Population and Development Research includes Prof. Yu Zhu, Dr. Bin Wang, and Ms Liyue Lin.

Social protection policies aimed at or relevant to rural-urban migrants as well as various research papers and reports, and data sets on living standards (for contextual analysis) and census data have been collected and reviewed.

Questionnaires are being developed for a survey of 600 migrants in both formal and informal sectors in and around Fuzhou in China. Data collection of the migration survey in four provinces of Thai Binh, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Tien Giang in Vietnam has been completed and data are being coded for analysis.

A working paper by Liyue Lin and Yu Zhu, entitled ‘ A multi-level analysis on the factors affecting social insurance of rural-urban migrants’(in Chinese) was accepted for presentation at the conference ‘China’s Population Development in the 30 years of reform and opening-up’ organized by the China Population Association in August 2008.		  
  Planned activities for the next three months September 1st – December 31st, 2008  
 

Analysis of secondary data (Vietnamese team); and further analysis of previous survey data of  600 migrants in Fujian and data from China Population Census (Chinese team)

Design and testing of questionnaires in both formal and informal sectors in and around Fuzhou

Design of the qualitative study of 100 migrants employed by industrial enterprises around Hanoi (Vietnamese team)