HISTORICAL FEATURES OF MIGRANT WAVES IN TWO RURAL COMMUNES OF TIỀN GIANG PROVINCE

Abstract

In Vietnam, historical approach is scarcely employed to study migration. The prominent method is quantitative survey, which is criticized for not providing the historically particular situations of surveyed communities. This study aims to apply historical method to research migration of two rural communes in Tien Giang province (the Mekong Delta), adhering to implications drawn from the concept of cultural relativism. Through this approach, the study contributes three arguments. First, migration streams of each community are particular in different historic periods. Second, this historical-particularism of migration is driven by the production and transformation in agriculture. Meanwhile, third, agriculture situation is intensely impacted by local geographic characteristics. Besides, it is also affected by the fact that peasants often exploit their relations at neighbor communes to learn new agricultural livelihood or techniques.