110908_resettlement vulnerability Vietnam_MG

Resettlement programmes and (forced) relocation have over the last years become an important element within Vietnam’s urban upgrading initiatives. These programmes include relocation made necessary by new infrastructure projects as well as the removal of slum-like dwellings with sub-standard living and housing conditions, often along rivers or canals. Resettlement projects can, hence, be understood as simultaneously being manifestations and drivers of urban “modernisation” and socio-economic transformation on a wider scale. However, the shortand long-term effects, comprising of opportunities as well as constraints, for the affected population are not well understood scientifically and underemphasized in the political arena. Against this background, relocation dynamics and resulting response mechanisms of affected households are explored using, in particular, the example of Can Tho City in the Mekong Delta. Based on empirical fieldwork in 2009 and 2010, the paper argues that the degree of direct financial implications as well as indirect livelihood changes determine whether a household is able to gain a long-term livelihood upgrade from the resettlement or whether it fails and experiences a downward movement in livelihood conditions and vulnerability. The latter can result, for example, in the need to move out of the designated resettlement cluster and back into other areas with substandard living circumstances. The main factors regulating these development pathways were, in detail, found to be the configuration of compensation schemes and land title holdings, duration and timing of the resettlement process, livelihood changes particularly related to income generation, access to information, regulative and procedural knowledge and socio-political relations. The paper calls for increased attention towards the dynamic midand long-term implications of resettlement on the micro-economic and socio-cultural sphere in order to supplement the current emphasis on physical infrastructure upgrading, thereby, fostering the socio-economic sustainability of resettlement projects.