Paper short abstract:

Different people have contrasting experiences of the risks and opportunities of migration depending on their socio-economic background, education, and when they migrate. This paper explores how recent Vietnamese migrant backgrounds affect their chances of successfully landing a job in the UK.

Paper long abstract:

Vietnamese migration to the UK has been increasing over the past two decades and primarily takes two distinct routes: (1) educated students from wealthy, urban families pay extortionate tuition fees to study at UK universities, attempting to stay and find work afterwards; and (2) young people from underdeveloped provinces incur huge debts and pay extortionate fees to migration brokers who assist in 'smuggling' them into the UK to work informally in a nail salon. Both routes may eventually lead to the same desired end goal: a steady income to send remittances back to Vietnam and the hopes of living in a 'developed' country. Yet one route is incredibly dangerous, often traumatic and involves years of precarious living 'under the radar', in fear of deportation.

This paper reflects on how Vietnamese migrants experience the two-tier global migration regime that sorts migrants into rights-holders with access to social and legal citizenships and temporary workers with very limited or no rights whatsoever. Based on semi-structured interviews and participant observation of Vietnamese communities in the UK, I explore how class prejudices and privileges emerge or dissolve when Vietnamese migrants from different class backgrounds interact and work together in the face of common hardships and xenophobia in the UK.