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Kenyon College

Publication Date

Spring 2006

Program Name

Viet Nam: Ecology and Sustainability in the Mekong Delta

Abstract

Migration policy in Viet Nam views land and populations as economic resources. At reunification, these resources were not evenly distributed, thus the migration policy of the newly formed Socialist Republic of Viet Nam sought to redistribute them in a more efficient manner. However, this viewpoint does not take into account environmental and social factors. These factors include, but are not limited to issues surrounding the suitability of land for cultivation, the choice of crops to be cultivated, the infrastructural supports provided to migrant communities, and the lack of capital being put into the system.

As a consequence of these factors, planned migration in Viet Nam is not an efficient use of resources. This inefficiency can be represented using an ecological utility theory of migration coupled with a supply and demand model. This inefficiency results from a contrived ecological utility and insufficient resource input. Reassessing ecological utility and increasing resource input can negate it.

This paper speaks on the inefficiencies of population redistribution in post-war Viet Nam in general terms, as well as using specific examples gathered from fieldwork conducted in Say Giang hamlet, Vinh Tri village, Vinh Hung district, Long An province.

Disciplines

Agricultural and Resource Economics | Demography, Population, and Ecology

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