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Vietnam; A Great Place for Expatriates

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Vietnam; a Great Expat Destination

The idea of living abroad is not new; people like moving and travelling to other destinations of the world, either temporarily or permanently. There could be many reasons behind the decision of moving to another destination such as seeking better employment opportunities, experiencing a new culture, discovering business opportunities and having a better living standard as well. Expats are always looking for a better personal and professional life coupled with the joy of living in a strange and exotic destination. Some of the factors they explore before choosing the destination to move to include economics, better quality of life, and safety. Vietnam has become an increasingly eminent tourist destination owing to its beautiful recreation spots and friendly people. Vietnam is a great ex-pat destination owing to the attractive job opportunities, low cost of living, together with the friendly and lively nature of locals.

The official name of Vietnam is the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; having a population of 94,685,000 as of 2018 statistics. The life expectancy of males is 70.9 years, while for females it is 76.2 years. It is one of the only five communist countries in existence. The official language is Vietnamese, though English is the second most spoken language. The Vietnamese people are referred to as Kinh and they practice Vietnamese folk religion often syncretized with Mahayana Buddhism. The country is characterized by religious diversity; other religions practised in Vietnam are Catholic, Hoa Hao, Cao Dai, Protestant, Muslim, and some atheists also exist. Living in Vietnam allows to experience a great taste of the East and to other ethnicities. All these factors make Vietnam an attractive destination for emigrants.

Vietnam offers great employment opportunities to ex-pats, making it one of the most admired destinations for foreigners seeking employment opportunities. The country is deemed as one of the fastest developing nations and it is said to come in the list of developed nations in the near future. World Bank demonstrates Vietnam as a country developing at a very good rate ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"ckIyOcLr","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(\\uc0\\u8220{}Overview,\\uc0\\u8221{} n.d.)","plainCitation":"(“Overview,” n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":106,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/rhLtY1cq/items/BHC6XCBK"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/rhLtY1cq/items/BHC6XCBK"],"itemData":{"id":106,"type":"webpage","abstract":"Vietnam’s shift from a centrally planned to a market economy has transformed the country from one of the poorest in the world into a lower middle-income country. Vietnam now is one of the most dynamic emerging countries in East Asia region.","container-title":"World Bank","genre":"Text/HTML","language":"en","title":"Overview","URL":"https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/vietnam/overview","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",12,3]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (“Overview,” n.d.) From the past few years, the number of people employed in the country has shown an increasing trend; it rose up to 54.56 Million as of the third quarter of 2019. The country has transformed itself from the poor economies to reducing the poverty level to a great extent. The provision of common services has also improved over the past thirty years. In addition, Vietnam is going through several changes in terms of education, urban development, governance reforms, and its growth of the private sector ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"MCfNIUKz","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(\\uc0\\u8220{}Overview,\\uc0\\u8221{} n.d.)","plainCitation":"(“Overview,” n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":106,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/rhLtY1cq/items/BHC6XCBK"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/rhLtY1cq/items/BHC6XCBK"],"itemData":{"id":106,"type":"webpage","abstract":"Vietnam’s shift from a centrally planned to a market economy has transformed the country from one of the poorest in the world into a lower middle-income country. Vietnam now is one of the most dynamic emerging countries in East Asia region.","container-title":"World Bank","genre":"Text/HTML","language":"en","title":"Overview","URL":"https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/vietnam/overview","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",12,3]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (“Overview,” n.d.). These factors unearth Vietnam as one of the developed nations of the future, leading to better economic opportunities for ex-pats.

Vietnam is an inexpensive destination for ex-pats due to cheap rent, low budget tourism, and low cost of food and transportation. According to the Business Insider, Vietnam is ranked as 19th in the list of top 20 destinations for expatriates to live and work for quality living, at low cost ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"8pqS56Ll","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Zheng, n.d.)","plainCitation":"(Zheng, n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":110,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/rhLtY1cq/items/RCUE7TDC"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/rhLtY1cq/items/RCUE7TDC"],"itemData":{"id":110,"type":"webpage","abstract":"HSBC Expat released its annual expat survey to find the best countries for expats to live in based on economics, quality of life, and a slew of other factors.  The top countries include Singapore, New Zealand, Germany, Canada, and Bahrain.","container-title":"Business Insider","title":"The 20 best countries around the world to live as an expat, ranked","URL":"https://www.businessinsider.com/the-20-best-countries-for-expats-2014-10","author":[{"family":"Zheng","given":"Annie"}],"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",12,3]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Zheng, n.d.). Not any country exists without problems and issues and same goes with Vietnam. Though the economic condition of the country is one of the factors that grabs ex-pats attention to a destination with per capita income of US$ 2,160. The country is developing and making progress at a very fast rate, that will keep the prices at a very reasonable rate for the ex-pats. It is generally a cheap country and ex-pats looking for cheaper destinations, generally consider it amid their first choices. The low cost of living stems from the low cost of housing, food, alcohol, transportation and other recreation expenses; thus making Vietnam a desirable place for ex-pats.

Vietnam is also regarded as an excellent destination owing to the friendly nature of locals. People who travel to Vietnam are highly impressed with the land and its people. The people are very friendly, very polite, helpful for the befuddled foreigner to a fault, who seem extremely interested in other people and foreign lands. Expats generally say that the people in the North are a bit more 'severe' in their demeanour, but they are a bit slower in making friends and extending relationships, when it comes to people from countries that quite recently tried to bomb them into the Stone Age. They are very caring, not only towards their own people, but towards ex-pats as well ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"0ZumLNp9","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(\\uc0\\u8220{}Vietnamese people\\uc0\\u8212{}Friendly and hospitable\\uc0\\u8212{}Vietnam Travel Guide,\\uc0\\u8221{} n.d.)","plainCitation":"(“Vietnamese people—Friendly and hospitable—Vietnam Travel Guide,” n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":108,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/rhLtY1cq/items/TPPQ9E6R"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/rhLtY1cq/items/TPPQ9E6R"],"itemData":{"id":108,"type":"webpage","title":"Vietnamese people - friendly and hospitable - Vietnam Travel Guide","URL":"https://www.vietnam-travel.org/lifestyles/vietnamese-people-friendly-and-hospitable.html","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",12,3]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (“Vietnamese people—Friendly and hospitable—Vietnam Travel Guide,” n.d.). They are also reluctant to take help from others, but always offering it to others, who might need it. Their typical behavior includes praising others, no flattering, having self-respect keeping traditions ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"zH7Yh1lj","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(\\uc0\\u8220{}Vietnamese people\\uc0\\u8212{}Friendly and hospitable\\uc0\\u8212{}Vietnam Travel Guide,\\uc0\\u8221{} n.d.)","plainCitation":"(“Vietnamese people—Friendly and hospitable—Vietnam Travel Guide,” n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":108,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/rhLtY1cq/items/TPPQ9E6R"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/rhLtY1cq/items/TPPQ9E6R"],"itemData":{"id":108,"type":"webpage","title":"Vietnamese people - friendly and hospitable - Vietnam Travel Guide","URL":"https://www.vietnam-travel.org/lifestyles/vietnamese-people-friendly-and-hospitable.html","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",12,3]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (“Vietnamese people—Friendly and hospitable—Vietnam Travel Guide,” n.d.). these factors make Vietnam a great place for foreigners.

The only negative image associated with Vietnam, is the Vietnam war, though it is a very old event. Some people also still consider it in the list of poor countries living in poverty, but the recent statistics show a different picture. It is on the verge of becoming one of the most developed nations in the near future. Besides, Vietnamese people are the most hospitable and giving, certainly better than where people generally come from, to have a better life experience. Thus, it is a great place for outsiders and foreigners because it has the friendliest people, along with the most equitable society in the region. The people are for sure very helping, and best of all they are friendly to each other. The economic conditions of the country make it a low-cost country to live in and offer better employment opportunities that makes it an admirable destination for the ex-pats.

References

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Overview [Text/HTML]. (n.d.). Retrieved December 3, 2019, from World Bank website: https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/vietnam/overview

Vietnamese people—Friendly and hospitable—Vietnam Travel Guide. (n.d.). Retrieved December 3, 2019, from https://www.vietnam-travel.org/lifestyles/vietnamese-people-friendly-and-hospitable.html

Zheng, A. (n.d.). The 20 best countries around the world to live as an expat, ranked. Retrieved December 3, 2019, from Business Insider website: https://www.businessinsider.com/the-20-best-countries-for-expats-2014-10