Immigration / Migration Essay

Rural people migrate to big, urban cities; this seems to be normal and ordinary for a developing country like Viet Nam. Therefore, my family found it easy to find a maid to look after our house. Our family maid, Mrs. Bich moved from her hometown to Ho Chi Minh City. This movement changed her, her sons, and her husband’s lives a lot. 

All the pull factors came to her when she had a phone call from a friend. Her friend said she could earn more money if she goes to big cities to find a job. There are tall buildings, a better life, a more modern life, and a life without working hard in the fields. Moreover, a push factor that made Mrs. Bich migrate is the land that she owned back in her homeland have been degraded, therefore it would easily cause her to fail in the crops season. At first, she couldn’t leave her family behind because she was afraid her children would not be well taken care of and her husband would have to do housework and take care of their children at the same time. 

After pondering on her decision, she made her first internal migration. As soon as she stepped off the bus, she was really surprised about the beauty of the city. Now, Mrs. Bich is also pleased with the income she gets every month by working in for my family, because she has never made more than five hundred thousand VND per month back in her homeland. 

Since Mrs. Bich has worked in my house, we have taken her for nights out with us quite a lot. She said in her hometown it doesn’t have steel bridges like those in Ho Chi Minh City, and she didn’t even know that there is a machine to do such things as playing DVDs and making food like DVD players and microwave ovens. Now, as her friend said she would have, she has a better life, she has new clothes, she travels many places she has never been before, and what pleases her most is her salary helps her husband and children a lot. 

However, she usually feels homesick and also cries of loneliness because she doesn’t interact with anyone except my family. She is always worried when she thinks of her children and her husband. Sometimes this causes her distractions while she's working. She finally comes up with a decision to move and settle her family in the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City.