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unsurprising, 2021 lockdowns and production moving to Vietnam from China were huge contributors to this. Also a lot of workers coming back from wealthier countr

unsurprising, 2021 lockdowns and production moving to Vietnam from China were huge contributors to this. Also a lot of workers coming back from wealthier countries due to weaker local currency: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04kfB_MKlQs&t=209s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04kfB_MKlQs&t=209s

c_o_n_v_e_x 4y ago
Anecdotally, I know a few people who are children of Vietnamese who fled the war that are moving back to Vietnam. Reasons include perception of better opportunities and weather.
- sarchertech 4y ago
  >weather Vietnam is hot, very humid, and for a large part of the year, extremely rainy. I guess many people would prefer that to living near the arctic circle. I’ve never heard a Vietnamese person longing for the weather.
  - SXX 4y ago
    Vietnam might look small on google maps, but it actually almost as big as Germany and weather in south is very different from north. I understand that a lot of people live in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, but there are certainly places that are quite close to some island tropical heaven. I spent plenty of time living around Phan Thiet, Na Trang and Da Nang next to the sea. While it generally humid in many places there is barely any rain outside of rain season.
    - sarchertech 4y ago
      My sister-in-law is from the south, her family is from the mid region, and my brother lived in Hanoi for a little while. All I have heard from any of them about the weather is how terrible it is. I get that there are a few parts of Vietnam where it’s not oppressively hot and humid for a bit of the year, but “the weather” being a reason to move back year round seems suspect. I’m not saying that there are zero people in the world who love the weather there, but if you compare the cities in Vietnam with the “best” weather they don’t come close to comparing with a city with good weather in the continental US—much less with a tropical paradise like Hawaii. Compare the average humidity, temperature, average rainy days, percent of clear days etc… between Da Nang and Honolulu. It’s not even remotely close.
      - SXX 4y ago
        I guess we just have different perspective since I'm not from US. I mostly compare Vietnam to Russia (where I was born), UK (lived there for a while) and Turkey since I live there at moment. Suppose I need to come to visit US and Hawaii to judge it, but honestly I loved living in Vietnam between October and May. And I'll choose it any time over London. Simple fact that in Vietnam I can wear very much the same closes most of the year and don't need heating in winter is great.
      - simple-thoughts 4y ago
        Comparing any place to Hawaii is not really fair. The Hawaiian island chain is almost unique in how far north it is while still being a tropical island chain of decent size.
        sarchertech 4y ago
        The OP said close to an island tropical heaven, which is why I picked Hawaii. Compare any objective weather metric between Da Nang and San Diego then. Unless you just like the rain, it’s not even close.
    - germandiago 4y ago
      You are still in VN. Where are you from? I am from Spain. Been here most of the time since 2012.
      - SXX 4y ago
        Nope I dont live there full time and honestly haven't been there since covid madness started as 3 month tourist visas got much harder. And yeah from my own experience it become much more humid in May and there is some actual rain during the rain season, but nothing you can't bear if you live next to the sea. Some of my relatives lived in Mui Ne whole year since they stuck there during covid and it was pretty much okay.
  - germandiago 4y ago
    But the rain here in Saigon goes in spurts. You have around 7 months of rainy season but it usually rains 1 hour per day or so after lunch time (13:00-14:00). Occassionally evening, rarely morning. But it is extremely rare that it covers a long span of the day. Really rare even if it can rain like one month in a row every day. Once I counted from 1st september to 10th of october. However, you skip the rain and continue at some other time. It does not bother. Maybe people tend to imagine you cannot do anything bc it rains a lot, but the rain is concentrated in short spans.
    - sarchertech 4y ago
      It’s not just rain though. It’s the heat and humidity, and cloud cover. Also an hour of hard rain per day will prevent plenty of activities because everything is constantly wet. Sure you can get used to it and clearly millions of people live with it, but I can’t imagine the climate in Saigon is a selling point. I’ve talked to my sister-in-law about it before—she was born and raised in Saigon. She clearly was able to deal with it. She talks about doing things like driving a scooter in a downpour. But she also complains about how awful the weather was compared to where she lives now. She lives in a hot, muggy, rainy city in the US (by US standards), so that’s really saying something.
      - germandiago 4y ago
        > Sure you can get used to it and clearly millions of people live with it, but I can’t imagine the climate in Saigon is a selling point. For me it is. The rain clears up the pollution, does not bother too much, and I can go to the swimming pool today or any day in the year. > But she also complains about how awful the weather was compared to where she lives now I do not think, this is my personal opinion, of course, that it is that bad as in the paper. Bc if you say it rains for 7 months people would run away. If you say, from those only 2-3 like every day, it rains in very concentrated spurts and does not clash with activities (if you work most of the day) and it cleans the air and you can still go to the swimming pool, for example, all year. I do not think it is that bad after 11 years in Vietnam.
        4y ago
  - c_o_n_v_e_x 4y ago
    All of the weather-motivated Vietnamese diaspora I know are British (parents originally from Saigon). I've met a ton of non-Vietnamese diaspora British expats who left because they hate the weather in the UK.
- SXX 4y ago
  While I personally haven't seen a lot of vietnamese permanently move back there I met plenty of people who heavily invested in business of their relatives who still live in Vietnam. Starting any offline business is simply 20-50x times cheaper than in US so it make sense. Though I doubt many people will return to live in Vietnamafter living in western countries. Of course many people come to visit, but even with living being so cheap quality of life is still too far from US or any of european countries.
  - cpursley 4y ago
    In what ways are quality of life inferior?
    - SXX 4y ago
      There are plenty items on this list, but here is a few: * No infrastructure unless you drive a bike. So children, older or disabled people mostly have to stay at home. * Lack of recreational infrastructure in cities. There are some parks, but it not a place where you would want to go. * Air quality in big cities is actually terrible. * Smaller and more touristic places have better infrastructure and air, but have no entertainment whatsoever. Like having single shopping mall for city with 300,000 population. * Free education is very lacking. There are paid options, but they are expensive even for rich vietnamese. * Same true for medical services. Yeah you might find cheap dentist, but for some health problems you will need to look options outside of Vietnam. * No pension system unless you been working for government. Some of issues can of course be compensated by fact of how cheap human labour is, but unfortunately having personal maid and cook wont help you with entertainment for your family or quality of air.
      - somenewaccount1 4y ago
        While some of those are true, you're discounting the benefits of life in Vietnam far too quickly, especially if you are moving back from the US with savings and a social security check. - People are kinder to each other, that's worth more than many modern comforts. - feel free and comfortable and relatively safe to ride your moped in your 70's - everyone does. - get a cheap private Grab (Uber) if you are really incapable. - food chain supply is significantly better, resulting in fresher and with healthier options almost everywhere compare to most modern countrues. - most modern medicine is available, and their are counties with superior medicine with a few hours flight. For many specialties, it's the same in the US - except you may only fly between states rather than counties. Same distance though. Ultimately, quality of life is subjective. You may think you have luxeries like neverending fast food sitting on your ass watching netflix, while I think you have shackles to an un-natural lifestyle that is burdened with gluttony and misery. In my experience living in Vietnam, the people are poorer and work harder, but still happier than the average person stateside. If you judge quality of life by a standard of happiness, I think many modern countries loose.
- germandiago 4y ago
  But the pollution is crazy, though :( I am living in Vietnam.

c_o_n_v_e_x 4y ago

Anecdotally, I know a few people who are children of Vietnamese who fled the war that are moving back to Vietnam. Reasons include perception of better opportunities and weather.

sarchertech 4y ago
>weather Vietnam is hot, very humid, and for a large part of the year, extremely rainy. I guess many people would prefer that to living near the arctic circle. I’ve never heard a Vietnamese person longing for the weather.
- SXX 4y ago
  Vietnam might look small on google maps, but it actually almost as big as Germany and weather in south is very different from north. I understand that a lot of people live in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, but there are certainly places that are quite close to some island tropical heaven. I spent plenty of time living around Phan Thiet, Na Trang and Da Nang next to the sea. While it generally humid in many places there is barely any rain outside of rain season.
  - sarchertech 4y ago
    My sister-in-law is from the south, her family is from the mid region, and my brother lived in Hanoi for a little while. All I have heard from any of them about the weather is how terrible it is. I get that there are a few parts of Vietnam where it’s not oppressively hot and humid for a bit of the year, but “the weather” being a reason to move back year round seems suspect. I’m not saying that there are zero people in the world who love the weather there, but if you compare the cities in Vietnam with the “best” weather they don’t come close to comparing with a city with good weather in the continental US—much less with a tropical paradise like Hawaii. Compare the average humidity, temperature, average rainy days, percent of clear days etc… between Da Nang and Honolulu. It’s not even remotely close.
    - SXX 4y ago
      I guess we just have different perspective since I'm not from US. I mostly compare Vietnam to Russia (where I was born), UK (lived there for a while) and Turkey since I live there at moment. Suppose I need to come to visit US and Hawaii to judge it, but honestly I loved living in Vietnam between October and May. And I'll choose it any time over London. Simple fact that in Vietnam I can wear very much the same closes most of the year and don't need heating in winter is great.
    - simple-thoughts 4y ago
      Comparing any place to Hawaii is not really fair. The Hawaiian island chain is almost unique in how far north it is while still being a tropical island chain of decent size.
      - sarchertech 4y ago
        The OP said close to an island tropical heaven, which is why I picked Hawaii. Compare any objective weather metric between Da Nang and San Diego then. Unless you just like the rain, it’s not even close.
  - germandiago 4y ago
    You are still in VN. Where are you from? I am from Spain. Been here most of the time since 2012.
    - SXX 4y ago
      Nope I dont live there full time and honestly haven't been there since covid madness started as 3 month tourist visas got much harder. And yeah from my own experience it become much more humid in May and there is some actual rain during the rain season, but nothing you can't bear if you live next to the sea. Some of my relatives lived in Mui Ne whole year since they stuck there during covid and it was pretty much okay.
- germandiago 4y ago
  But the rain here in Saigon goes in spurts. You have around 7 months of rainy season but it usually rains 1 hour per day or so after lunch time (13:00-14:00). Occassionally evening, rarely morning. But it is extremely rare that it covers a long span of the day. Really rare even if it can rain like one month in a row every day. Once I counted from 1st september to 10th of october. However, you skip the rain and continue at some other time. It does not bother. Maybe people tend to imagine you cannot do anything bc it rains a lot, but the rain is concentrated in short spans.
  - sarchertech 4y ago
    It’s not just rain though. It’s the heat and humidity, and cloud cover. Also an hour of hard rain per day will prevent plenty of activities because everything is constantly wet. Sure you can get used to it and clearly millions of people live with it, but I can’t imagine the climate in Saigon is a selling point. I’ve talked to my sister-in-law about it before—she was born and raised in Saigon. She clearly was able to deal with it. She talks about doing things like driving a scooter in a downpour. But she also complains about how awful the weather was compared to where she lives now. She lives in a hot, muggy, rainy city in the US (by US standards), so that’s really saying something.
    - germandiago 4y ago
      > Sure you can get used to it and clearly millions of people live with it, but I can’t imagine the climate in Saigon is a selling point. For me it is. The rain clears up the pollution, does not bother too much, and I can go to the swimming pool today or any day in the year. > But she also complains about how awful the weather was compared to where she lives now I do not think, this is my personal opinion, of course, that it is that bad as in the paper. Bc if you say it rains for 7 months people would run away. If you say, from those only 2-3 like every day, it rains in very concentrated spurts and does not clash with activities (if you work most of the day) and it cleans the air and you can still go to the swimming pool, for example, all year. I do not think it is that bad after 11 years in Vietnam.
      - 4y ago
- c_o_n_v_e_x 4y ago
  All of the weather-motivated Vietnamese diaspora I know are British (parents originally from Saigon). I've met a ton of non-Vietnamese diaspora British expats who left because they hate the weather in the UK.
SXX 4y ago
While I personally haven't seen a lot of vietnamese permanently move back there I met plenty of people who heavily invested in business of their relatives who still live in Vietnam. Starting any offline business is simply 20-50x times cheaper than in US so it make sense. Though I doubt many people will return to live in Vietnamafter living in western countries. Of course many people come to visit, but even with living being so cheap quality of life is still too far from US or any of european countries.
- cpursley 4y ago
  In what ways are quality of life inferior?
  - SXX 4y ago
    There are plenty items on this list, but here is a few: * No infrastructure unless you drive a bike. So children, older or disabled people mostly have to stay at home. * Lack of recreational infrastructure in cities. There are some parks, but it not a place where you would want to go. * Air quality in big cities is actually terrible. * Smaller and more touristic places have better infrastructure and air, but have no entertainment whatsoever. Like having single shopping mall for city with 300,000 population. * Free education is very lacking. There are paid options, but they are expensive even for rich vietnamese. * Same true for medical services. Yeah you might find cheap dentist, but for some health problems you will need to look options outside of Vietnam. * No pension system unless you been working for government. Some of issues can of course be compensated by fact of how cheap human labour is, but unfortunately having personal maid and cook wont help you with entertainment for your family or quality of air.
    - somenewaccount1 4y ago
      While some of those are true, you're discounting the benefits of life in Vietnam far too quickly, especially if you are moving back from the US with savings and a social security check. - People are kinder to each other, that's worth more than many modern comforts. - feel free and comfortable and relatively safe to ride your moped in your 70's - everyone does. - get a cheap private Grab (Uber) if you are really incapable. - food chain supply is significantly better, resulting in fresher and with healthier options almost everywhere compare to most modern countrues. - most modern medicine is available, and their are counties with superior medicine with a few hours flight. For many specialties, it's the same in the US - except you may only fly between states rather than counties. Same distance though. Ultimately, quality of life is subjective. You may think you have luxeries like neverending fast food sitting on your ass watching netflix, while I think you have shackles to an un-natural lifestyle that is burdened with gluttony and misery. In my experience living in Vietnam, the people are poorer and work harder, but still happier than the average person stateside. If you judge quality of life by a standard of happiness, I think many modern countries loose.
germandiago 4y ago
But the pollution is crazy, though :( I am living in Vietnam.