The Third Element of Migration: Opportunistic Brokerage and Inequality in Vietnam

This article analyzes why migrant brokerage contributes to social inequality. Drawing on brokerage theories, the author uses the analytical category tertius carpens (opportunistic third) to capture the normalized, but cumulatively deleterious effects, of migrant brokerage on aspiring migrants and their families. Based on ethnographic observations and 224 interviews with state officials, migrant brokers, and migrants in Vietnam, the analysis focuses on the dual relationships of migrant brokers – with national export labor companies and aspiring migrants – to expose brokers’ crucial role in Vietnam’s export labor system. It also underscores how their opportunism enables the further unequal power relations in the field of international migration, adversely affecting migrants’ everyday lives and perpetuating inequality in Vietnam.

SPEAKER

Andrew Le is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics at Arizona State University. He received his Ph.D. from the Sociology Department at the University of California Los Angeles. Andrew’s research interests include international migration, race & ethnicity, Asia/Asia America, political & global sociology, social theory, and qualitative research methods. He has published in various venues such as Journal of Peasant Studies, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, and Ethnicities.

CHAIR

Andy Scott Chang is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Singapore Management University. He is a sociologist of gender, migration, and work.