How has the farming households’ livelihood strategy and structure of occupation been changing in the Red River Delta, Vietnam? ―A case study in Thai Binh province―

Presently,in Vietnam, farming households’ livelihood strategies have been diversified. Generating plenty of labor out-migrantsrepresents a symbolic phenomenon. This paper examinedtrue state of out-migration and investigated determinant factors to initiate those migrants at administrative unit level in Thai Binh province, Red River Delta.For this study, in 2010, a preliminary field survey was conducted and 66 communes’ local authorities were interviewed to collect data on labor out-migrants, demography, land resources, socio-economy, agricultural production, and social network and transportation. The data were statistically analyzed by applyingone-way ANOVA or Kruskal-Wallis test, and multiple regressions to reveal the significant determinants forout-generation in the sampled communes by quartile groups of the deference of local industrialization. The major findings are: 1) 53.7 – 64.5 % of total farming households in the provinceare estimated to haveat least one labor out-migrant, 2) 65.1 – 71.4 % of the labor out-migrants are estimated to engage in the manufacturing and construction sector, 3) a disparity of industrialization among the sampled communesdid not bring any statistically significant differences in emergence of out-migration, 4) the significant determinant factors of emergence of labor out-migrantscharacteristically differed by the quartile groups of industrialization, and 5) farmers in Thai Binh province is facing to a transition from rural-oriented mind to urban-oriented mind.