Question

What is so bad about Vietnam that makes people want to leave?

Answer 1

There is nothing “so bad” about Vietnam. In fact, it is a wonderful country, full of natural beauty and friendly, industrious people.

But, Vietnam is also a developing country. It has a population of 80 million people, 60 million of them living and working in a rural setting, mostly rice and farming.

Lots more of these people would like to move to the cities in search of better work and a less tough life. But the cities are already overflowing with immigrants, unemployment is high, and work is scarce.

So, to do things like introduce mechanized rice farming would certainly make the job easier for hundreds of thousands of people but it would also put millions of people out of work as mechanization replaces manual jobs. And, education still has a long way to go in the rural populations, although great strides have been made.

Vietnam is focusing on the technology sector in many ways. For example, it is undercutting China for the manufacture of electronics. But, that means low wages to compete against the Chinese, and such manufacturing still remains a small part of the overall economy.

It doesn’t help that there are still communist hardliners in place, attempting to central plan and to shut off all kinds of avenues of entrepreneurship. Want an example? A friend wanted to start a motor cycle parts import company. He was prevented from doing so. Why? Because the central planning guys wanted him to buy his parts locally. Except there aren’t any. His solution? Import entire bikes and take them apart.

So, people leave for better economic opportunity, and to a lesser degree, to escape the oppressive regime that still attempts to control everything with an iron hand.

Answer 2

I often go to Vietnam and if there are bad things about Vietnam.

1. Sanitation is really bad, lots of garbage in the city, roads are bad.

2. vendors like to cheat customers (although other countries also have them, but among the Southeast Asian countries, Vietnamese vendors are more prominent)

3. There are too many motorcycles, and drivers don't like to obey traffic rules.

4. Officials are corrupt.

5.The Vietnamese are very sensitive, especially when dealing with the Chinese, but are very proud when dealing with Laotians and Cambodians.

6. Vietnamese cannot read the books of their ancient ancestors or even understand the culture of their ancestors.

In short, there are good and bad sides to different places, and it is important to look at the whole picture.