An explanation for Vietnam's recent migration pattern based on cumulative causation theory and relative deprivation theory

Abstract

This paper combines cumulative causation theory and relative deprivation theory to explain incentives and influences on decision to send migrants of a household, concerning interaction of the household’s characteristics, especially factors related to income, and the features of the origin community. Two subsets of data from two successive Vietnam Household Living Standards Surveys (VHLSS) in period from 2010 to 2014 are established and employed to avoid endogeneity in the analysis of migration pattern in Vietnam in 2012 and 2014. By using logit method and combination of difference-in-difference (DID) and propensity matching score method (PSM), we find some interesting results that have never been found in previous empirical studies for Vietnam case. First, the competitiveness competence level of the origin province may reduce possibility of work migrants. Furthermore, relative income status before migration event, represented by ratio of income per capita of a household over the average income per capita in the origin province, may positively affect the possibility of sending migrants of the household. Then, returns from migration, could create a significantly positive effect on the relative income status of the household at the origin via remittance channel, generating an automatic mechanism in migration progress as expected in the cumulative causation theory.