[Vnbiz] Vietkieu Policies

Fri Feb 15 00:36:55 PST 2008

Dear CACC, 

I run across this Financial Times article on the same issue that we
discussed. It is, however, analysed on the global scale from different
angles. A broadened view, I guess, with examples of how different countries
deal with the matter, is what I want to share with you here. 

Have a nice day, everyone!

Thanh An

email: thanhan2505 at gmail.com

___________

The world must adapt to diasporas

By Michael Fullilove 

Published: February 14 2008 19:36 | Last updated: February 14 2008 19:36

In 2006, I walked with Marco Fedi, a newly elected member of the Italian
parliament, into the Chamber of Deputies in the Palazzo Montecitorio in
Rome. What was unusual about this scene was that Mr Fedi is an Australian.
He serves in the Italian parliament - participating in Italian debates and
voting on Italian laws - as a member of the Italian diaspora.

Diasporas - communities that live outside, but maintain links with, their
homelands - have been with the world at least since the Jews were exiled to
Babylonia. But in recent years they have become larger, thicker and
stronger. Italy's extraordinary innovation in electing diaspora MPs is only
one example of the world's growing diaspora consciousness.

Diasporans are becoming more interested in their origins; homelands are
revising their opinions of their diasporas and stepping up engagement
efforts; host countries are worrying about fifth columns and foreign
lobbies.

This trend is the result of five factors, all connected with globalisation:
the growth in migration; the revolution in transport and communications
technology, which is quickening the pace of diasporans' interactions with
their homelands; a reaction against global homogenised culture; the end of
the cold war, which increased the salience of ethnicity and created new
space in which diasporas can operate; and policy changes by governments on
issues such as dual citizenship, which license people to lead transnational
lives.

The strengthening of diasporas has important implications for global
economics, politics and security. The world is becoming aware of the awesome
economic power of remittances: in 2006, for instance, total remittances to
developing countries were probably three times the size of the world's
combined foreign aid budgets.

Diasporas are becoming more prominent and controversial players in host
country politics. Homeland capitals are reaching out to their diasporas:
creating diaspora institutions; ministering to their religious needs, as
with Turks abroad; and engaging them in politics, as in Italy, where
diaspora MPs helped to vote Silvio Berlusconi, former prime minister, out of
office last time.

The spike in diaspora consciousness also raises security issues. Diasporas
provide foot-soldiers for ethnically based criminal networks and can foster
extremism back home. On the other hand, diasporas can also support young
people who might otherwise fall prey to more dangerous forms of identity
politics, such as jihadist Islamism. Finally, if diasporas can pose security
threats, they are also subject to them. In many places, demand for consular
protection is surging and homelands such as China are meeting it. Such
states are likely to bump up against each other as they seek to protect
distant citizens.

The tightening of diasporic connections complicates life for governments.
Many governments are displaying bipolar tendencies in relation to diasporas,
exhibiting equal generosity to their emigrants and meanness to their
immigrants. Homelands are keen to work with their diasporas, but they are
not good at operating extra-territorially and their diaspora policies tend
to be clunky and ineffective. In the short term, homelands should be modest
and pragmatic about their outreach efforts.

Host countries will also need to be realistic, by accepting that many of
their people possess plural national affiliations. Like the "mixobarbarians"
of Byzantine times, who had qualities of both Hellenes and barbarians, many
of us now live in frontier regions (whether physical or virtual) and hold
overlapping identities. Governments should be careful to separate broad
issues of identity, therefore, from urgent but narrower issues of security.

There are implications, finally, for the international system. The world
would profit from understandings on a number of diaspora issues, including
the cost of remittances, the permissibility of long-distance politicking and
the protection of nationals. A famous international relations analogy likens
states to billiard balls, zipping around the table, clicking against each
other and bouncing off the cushions at predictable angles. This is a wholly
inadequate description of the international system as it now operates.
Diasporas are like "world wide webs" emanating from states, with dense,
interlocking strands spanning the globe, connecting people with distant
places and governments, binding countries together and pulling them into
each other's way.

The writer directs the global issues programme at the Lowy Institute in
Sydney. This piece is based on his new paper, World wide webs: Diasporas and
the international system

  _____  

From: vnbiz-bounces at mail.saigon.com [mailto:vnbiz-bounces at mail.saigon.com]
On Behalf Of Tran Dinh Hoanh
Sent: 12 February 2008 19:29
To: vnbiz at vietlinks.net
Subject: Re: [Vnbiz] Vietkieu Policies

Dear Thanh An & CACC,

Thanks for the good posting, Thanh An.  Let's me provide some quick
response, not to form a policy, but to provide an analytical framework for
policy thinking purposes.

1.  Vietkieu salary for government position:  Let's assume that Vietkieu
will have some position with the government and such position may need
acceptable salary to attract Vietkieu.  That means, a Vietkieu will have a
higher payment then a national of the same position?  Say, if the position
of Director of Housing of Hanoi, if a national takes that post, he will get
X dollars per year, but if that the Vietkieu then he will get X dollars plus
Y dollars per year?

That kinds of discriminatory policy will surely break things instead of help
things.  Whoever Vietkieu will take that kind of position is simply stupid,
because he won't be able to work with anyone around him with all the
resentment going on.   

But right now there are many positions in many internationally funded
projects that pay higher salary. These positions may be filled by nationals,
or expats, or Vietkieus, depending on experience.  That is the "market" for
skill labor that I alluded to in my previous message. Let's just rely on
this existing market instead of coming up with a discriminatory salary
scheme. 

2.  I think if every Vietkieu has the right to buy his own home or rent his
own home without being charged a "Vietkieu price"  (the current policy has
too many requirements for Vietkieu to own a home.  A better policy is to
allow every Vietkieu to own one home whether he is doing anythying in
Vietnam or not, that would eventually take many Vietkieu back to the
motherland).  

Every Vietkieu should be able to stay in Vietnam as long as he want and not
worrying about visa (this is now available with the Visa Exemption
Certificate that is good for 5 years).  

Vietkieu should be able to go everywhere without being charged a Vietkieu
price, worship everywhere without being harassed.   

Vietkieu should be able to stay anywhere without all kinds of reporting. 

Vietkieu can talk freely in private without being harass (I love to talk to
my friends about Buddhism and Jesus, and I usually give them a copy of the
Bible or some Buddhist writing, because I just love to share with my friends
what I love, and I don't want some idiot to harass me for "doing religious
propagation without a license").  

(Public speaking may face some restrictions or licensing for security and
public order, I agree.  But I am talking about private talk among friends
here). 

So when I am talking about "environment" I am talking about the "mental and
spiritual environment."  I am not talking about physical environment.  If a
Vietkieu wants to have a mansion with leading-edge amenities, he just has to
build it himself, the government shouldn't have to worry about it.  If he
stays in Vietnam he just has to put up with the road conditions and zillions
of scooters like everyone else.

So the formula is very simple:  Treat Vietkieu as any Vietnamese citizen,
then they will feel at home.  It is that simple.  

Of course, there may be some restrictions of citizen rights for Vietkieu
because of their long-distant status, but the key point is simple:  Treat
them like Vietnamese, and not foreigner.  How much more simple would it
take?

Have a great day!

Hoanh

On Feb 12, 2008 1:34 PM, Pham Thi Thanh An <thanhan2505 at gmail.com> wrote:

[ Vietnam Business Forum ]

Dear A. Hoanh and all, 

Just a few quick reactions on your latest post: 

1.	I guess the salary issue is could still be a relevant question for
the public sector, since the private sector has definitely been functioning
based on the market rules whether employees are local Vietnamese, foreigners
or Vietkieu. Now what happens if a Vietkieu wants to work for a Government
agencies or a state-funded research institution? To what extent the current
salary framework will prevent them from taking the positions could be a
relevant GOV policy question.
2.	Having said this, I think salary is only one among many important
issues to be thought through in designing GOV policy to attract Vietkieu
talents, including housing, recruitment and promotion policies, inter alia,
and all of them have to go together in the same direction. If I was to
design such policies, I would start by asking three questions: 1. what are
the incentives for Vietkieu to come home and work; 2. what do they need as
a.desirable and b.acceptable working and living conditions; and 3. what are
the order of importance and priorities for Vietkieu within this broad set of
conditions. I guess answering these questions would help the development of
a list of things to do for the GOV in various areas in terms of removing
current economic, social, administrative and even ideological barriers and
creating an enabling environment for drawing home this valuable, yet very
much undertapped source of the nation's human capital, ranging from visa,
passport to housing, salary, working conditions, among others.    
3.	Even though I am not entirely happy with the current pace of changes
in this important area of Vietkieu policy, I guess somehow we need to
acknowledge the long way the GOV has gone through in being where it is
today. A couple of days ago, I heard from one senior MOFA member that the
dual citizenship for Vietkieu had been put on the table for discussion. In
the areas of housing, moving from allowing Vietkieu to buy houses might be
just one initial step to further future liberalisation in this sphere.
4.	All changes in behaviours need to come from changes in mindset. I
guess we have gone through the most difficult stage in that process of
digging away the elements of doubts and untrust burdening on both sides by
the historical contexts. Whilst even this step can be arguably not yet fully
complete, the trend is clearly irreverable. Now the question is more how to
translate such momentum of changes in the mindset into practical effective
policies that can fuel the homebound inflows of Vietkieu intellectual
resources for the economic and social development of the nation. 

I will be curious to learn from some Vietkieu brothers and sisters on this
forum on some of these thoughts of mine, especially the 3 questions that I
raised earlier. 

Happy New Year to you all!

Thanh An 

-- 
Tran Dinh Hoanh, Esq., LLB, JD
Washington DC 

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