Workers and laborers continuously face difficulties and cannot find jobs, so they have no choice but to leave the city and return to the countryside - Photo: C.TRIEU
Workers have no home or large assets, so when they leave the city to return to their hometown, they think the same way they did when they moved to a new place. But there are also people who leave the city with the hope of a new opportunity.
Don't know what to do tomorrow
It has been nearly 10 years since Pham Van Tin (28 years old) last had a year-end reunion with his high school classmates. The reason is that after graduation, Tin left his hometown in the Central region and moved to Dong Nai to live. However, the salary of a shoemaker is not too high, and his hometown is far away, requiring many expenses, so the number of times he returned home to visit was also rare.
At this year-end class reunion, Tin was the most enthusiastic person in the group. He said loudly: "From now on, I'll stay here and not go in there anymore. If my friends have anything to do, please introduce me to them."
Although workers' salaries are not high, if they know how to spend sparingly, they can save some money. However, in the past two years, overtime has been almost non-existent, income has been continuously decreasing while rent and food costs have "skyrocketed", causing Tin to feel extremely pressured.
Tin also changed jobs hoping to find a better one, but it didn't get much better, and he even lost his seniority pay. No degree, no skills, and his CV with "nearly 10 years of experience as a worker" didn't help. With no other choice, Tin decided to leave the city and return to the countryside.
At the year-end reunion party with friends after a long time, we laugh and talk happily, but deep down, the days ahead do not see any possible future.
"If I try to hold on, I'll probably get through the day, but if the situation continues like this for a long time, it won't be good. Even though I still don't know what to do when I get home, at least I have a cool house instead of renting, and I'm close to my parents" - Tin said sadly.
I used to think that since I had a stable house, I would stay in the city forever, but I never expected the difficulties to come and last so long. It was hard to find a job, and even if I did, it wasn't suitable, plus life was too suffocating, so I had to go back.
Mr. DAO DUY NGOC (Binh Tan district, Ho Chi Minh City)
Difficulty is also opportunity
The recent Giap Thin Tet holiday was also the most special homecoming for the family of Hoang Anh Quoc (40 years old, from Thua Thien Hue). The trip was also the day the whole family officially left the land of love, Ho Chi Minh City, after 22 years of living there.
After graduating from the post and telecommunications industry and becoming a technical staff member of a large telecommunications company, Anh Quoc was soon able to buy a house in Ho Chi Minh City. Many years ago, he and some friends pooled money to open a company and initially did quite well. But after two years of economic difficulties, his company also struggled when the supply chain was disrupted.
Many of his company's orders were difficult to complete. Meanwhile, inventory piled up in the warehouse, and bad debt increased dramatically.
But all the debts were bad, some even ran away while every day they woke up shocked by the bank interest rates. Quoc decided to sell the house, pay off all the debts, and move the whole family back to Hue to live.
He almost had to start over, and it was difficult to continue his work in telecommunications. Quoc chose to become a technology driver as a way to return to his hometown, but it was like a new land after so much time away from home.
"There is information that Hue is about to become a centrally-governed city, so there will probably be a lot of potential and opportunities. It is difficult to leave Ho Chi Minh City, but maybe that is an opportunity for me to catch up with the development trend in my hometown, and being close to my family is still better" - Mr. Quoc said.
House for rent in city, live in countryside
The journey back to the countryside with Dao Duy Ngoc's family (30 years old, Binh Tan District, Ho Chi Minh City) was a bit easier. Ngoc worked as a truck driver for seven years, then as a chef for four years.
But the COVID-19 pandemic swept through, leaving Ngoc unemployed. Post-COVID-19, he struggled to continue his career as a chef, but he officially quit in October 2023 because the salary was too low to survive.
Over the past five months, Ngoc has managed to work as a motorbike taxi driver. He said that there were days when he worked 10 hours straight, and some days he worked non-stop, earning up to 3 million VND/day. But there were also days when he opened the app from morning to night and still did not reach the minimum quota (about 450,000 VND/day).
He and his wife currently live in a three-story townhouse in Binh Tan District (HCMC). They plan to rent it out at the end of March and then move to Vung Tau.
Explaining, Ngoc said: "Partly I'm fed up with the cramped city and stuffy living space, but mostly because I find work getting harder and harder. Even though I've tried hard, I still don't see any significant achievements."
Leave the city to travel to your hometownSource
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