2019
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
1(1)
the media, marriage migrant women’s behaviour brings harm and shame to the
‘nation’ and all Vietnamese people… 115
However, despite popular attitudes to marriage migration, in comparison to the
‘receiving’ states of Taiwan and China in particular (where the motives of
marriage migrants are strongly doubted), 116 Vietnam’s approach at the national
level appears to be more flexible. This flexibility can be seen through Vietnam’s
willingness to work with Taiwan for example on permitting the renunciation of
nationality by Vietnamese marriage migrants in Taiwan, 117 and permitting a
Korean organisation, the Korean Center for United Nations (also known as
‘KOCUN’) 118 to work in Vietnam 119 with returned marriage migrants and their
families, to regularise their legal statuses.
Further, as Kneebone observes, ‘the government takes a broad view about the
presence of “biracial” children in the community’ 120 though it is acknowledged
that ‘these attitudes may not filter down to the local level’. 121 For example, in a
Ministry of Foreign Affairs presentation in Hanoi, June 2011, it was said that:
Vietnamese language and … culture preservation in this group of children, how to
raise these children so that they can keep two culture [sic] and can actually become
a bridge for the promotion of exchanges and friendship and cooperation between
the people and Government of Viet Nam with the people and governments
concerned. 122
Despite this more flexible and pragmatic approach, the children of returned
marriage migrants face many problems and barriers in Vietnam, as described in
this article.
Another important feature of the 2008 Nationality Law is that it begins from a
principle of ‘single nationality’ and while the existing laws allows for dualcitizenship in limited circumstances, 123 in practice, dual-citizenship is highly
115 ibid 83.
116 Hong-Zen Wang, ‘Immigration Trends and Policy Changes in Taiwan’ (2011) 20(2) Asian
and Pacific Migration Journal 169.
117 Cheng (n 84).
118 See ‘Project Supporting Vietnamese Women Married to RoK Men’ Voice of Vietnam (Online,
119
120
121
122
123
28 October 2016) <https://english.vov.vn/society/project-supporting-vietnamese-womenmarried-to-rok-men-335119.vov>.
Traditionally, Vietnam grants permission to operate in Vietnam to few non-governmental
organisations.
Some argue that Vietnam’s relative tolerance of bi-racial children (in contrast to South Korea
and Japan for example) reflects earlier French colonisation experience and the later fathering
of children by foreign soldiers. See Do Thi Mai Hanh, ‘International Marriages in Vietnam:
Issues and Suggested Solutions’ in Younghee Cho et al, Legal Systems Related to
International Marriage in Asia: South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Philippines, Vietnam and
Cambodia (Report, International Organization for Migration Research and Training Centre,
2013) 279–80.
Kneebone, ‘Nationality and Identity in Regulation’ (n 5) 15.
ibid 14.
2008 Nationality Law (n 69) art 4.
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