Abstract
Focusing on the understudied Cham (Sunni) Muslims who live in the Mekong Delta region of southern Vietnam , decades after Vietnam joined the market system, I found that they have sustained their century-old mobile ways of life—including retailing, fishing, and sewing—in close connection with the global Islamic community to make a living and to continue their religious studies. But a mixed picture emerges in their response to Vietnam’s labor export policy since 2002: practicing geographical agency with short-term successes but facing more risks as both men and women engage in extra local journeys, crossing borders into Cambodia, Thailand, and Malaysia.
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Notes
- 1.
The Kinh accounts for about 85 % of the Vietnamese population (2013 estimates). https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/vm.html.
- 2.
Yoshimoto (2012) argued that there were already 100,000 Cham in two central coastal regions (Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan), of which there were 44,000 (of both Cham Bani and Cham Islam) based on 2010 official statistics, (pp. 492–493). Taylor (2007) gave a much lower statistic: 100,000 in the whole Vietnam, using 1989 census (p. 59).
- 3.
Another source argues that in the first millennium B.C.E., the Cham had sailed from the west coast of Borneo across the East Sea (or South China Sea) and settled in what is now central and south-central Vietnam. According to Nakamura (2000), there are two waves of Muslim arrivals in Champa. Persians, Arabs, Indians, and Chinese Muslims were the first Muslims who came to Champa in the ninth century and established a presence there by the eleventh century. At that time, conversion to Islam was limited to people who enjoyed special relationships with the foreign communities. The second wave comprised Malay Muslims who had contacts with the Cham during the peak of Southeast Asian maritime trade in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This was the time when a significant number of the local population converted to Islam. The contemporary Sunni Muslim Cham in a Giang province in Vietnam, a border province with Cambodia, has close associations with Cham Muslims in Cambodia. They speak the same dialect and some have kinship ties. Moreover, the Malays were responsible for converting the Cham refugees to Sunni Islam; both the Cham Muslim and Malay Muslim follow the same school of Islam (Shafi’i) and share similar religious customs (pp. 63–64).
- 4.
Some key central and south-central coast provinces include Ninh Thuan, Phan Rang, Phan Ri, Phan Thiet, Khanh Hoa.
- 5.
A broader-in-scope manuscript (Tran 2015) which examines the Kinh, the Hoa, the Khmer, and the H-Re migrant workers in manufacturing industries in Malaysia is work-in-progress.
- 6.
- 7.
He was very proud to say that “all 5900 Cham residents, every single one of them, received free health insurance from the government.” And that is why he remembered the number of Cham population in An Phu District.
- 8.
This is a part of the Resolution 30a/2008/NQ-CP (ratified on 27 December 2008). While these poor rural districts are primarily in the North (Yen Bai, Phu Tho, Thanh Hoa), Central (Quảng Ngãi, Quang Binh, Quang Tri), and central highland provinces (Kon Tum, Lam Dong), there are some poor rural districts in the South of Vietnam.
- 9.
Exporting labor in Vietnam is not a new phenomenon: exchange workers were sent to the former Soviet Union and its satellites to repay foreign debts in the 1980s. In Tran 2015 book manuscript, I focus on the impacts of this major “labor export” policy on the Kinh and two other ethnic minorities: the H-Re and the Khmer.
- 10.
About 9000 Vietnamese export workers, of which about 5000 went to Malaysia, lost their jobs and had to return home before the end of their contracts (Vietnamese ambassador to Malaysia, Mr. Hoàng Trọng Lập’s interview with Vietnamese journalists in Kuala Lumpur (Duy 2009, August 18).
- 11.
Many of them came from various ministries including industry, mining and commerce.
- 12.
It was unclear where he was in Malaysia: we heard he said: “Karup city” in Malaysia but could not verify the exact spelling of that city.
- 13.
But there are some ethnic differences in gendered division of labor which I analyze in my 2015 book manuscript.
- 14.
Increasing level of inequalities in Asia led to this division of labor where the nouveaux rich class in developing countries needs domestic care (from another developing country) for their families which open the door for certain types of foreign workers (Oishi 2005).
- 15.
Taylor made a same point: families travel together (Taylor 2007, p. 172).
- 16.
While not at all as elaborate as the main mosque, this is the first all-female worshiping place that I’ve seen in the several years that I frequented these Muslim villages in An Giang province.
- 17.
He further said that to discipline violating recruitment companies, in 2011–2012, An Giang officials had withdrawn business licenses of 50 violating recruitment companies.
- 18.
This may be due to the sensitivity of this issue and the lack of clear-cut policy at that time.
- 19.
As a woman, I was not allowed to step inside the mosque, but all the Cham there were very nice and friendly to me.
- 20.
Nakamura also talked about how the Cham needed support from their fellow Muslims as refugees on foreign soil (65).
- 21.
In another study (Tran and Crinis, manuscript 2014), we found that the Kinh women workers in Malaysia have been participating in religious groups in Malaysia for faith, friendship and support. However, more study is needed on the intent and implications of these religious groups for migrant workers there and when they return home.
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Acknowledgments
I’d like to acknowledge a small grant from California State University Monterey Bay Faculty Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity in 2010 that helped with the early stage of fieldwork in Vietnam on labor migration to Malaysia. Comments and feedback from “The Road Less Travelled: Mobility in Southeast Asian Societies Workshop” participants in March 2014 were very helpful. Drs. Lian Kwen Fee and Mizanur Rahman have been steadfast on their comments and support of this edited volume. Joe Lubow has provided excellent copy-editing assistance throughout the various stages of this manuscript.
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Tran, A.N. (2016). Weaving Life Across Borders: The Cham Muslim Migrants Traversing Vietnam and Malaysia. In: Lian, K., Rahman, M., Alas, Y. (eds) International Migration in Southeast Asia. Asia in Transition, vol 2. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-712-3_2
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