Field access is frequently regarded as a mere practical step in the research process, with insufficient attention given to its broader implications. Numerous writings that focus on gaining field access offer just a collection of practical tips. While these recommendations are valuable, they are specific to each setting and individual experiences. Such an ad hoc approach […]

Debt-financed migration, or the financing of migration through borrowing, has received limited scholarly attention. Although scholars recognize its importance, they rarely delve into it as a subject of study. Due to the lack of comprehensive discussions on this topic and the growing prevalence of migration flows in which debt is a crucial funding mechanism, this […]

Artificial intelligence (AI) and big data are transforming the credit market around the world. Algorithmic credit scoring (ACS) is increasingly used to assess borrowers’ creditworthiness, using technology to glean non-traditional data from smartphones and analyze them through machine-learning algorithms. These processes promise efficiency, accuracy, and cost-effectiveness compared with traditional credit scoring. However, this technology raises […]

While conducting research on debt in the lives of sex workers in Hồ Chí Minh City, I stumbled upon an ad a moneylender had glued to a wall. It revealed that financialization was thriving in Vietnam, and more specifically that credit was rapidly expanding and colonizing the urban landscape. Photography became a tool to visually […]

In popular thinking, debt evokes notions of vulnerability and bondage, while irregular migration for sex work conjures up the hazards of human trafficking and modern slavery. These perceptions inform ‘safe migration’ policies aimed at ordering and regulating migration and combating informality to increase migrants’ safety and well-being; the assumption being that illegality puts migrants at […]

Cultural interpretations of the sex trade are pervasive in Southeast Asia, in particular, the argument that daughters enrol in sex work to repay a debt of life and support their parents. While useful to illuminate the role of culture in shaping economic action, this narrative carries the risk of viewing people as robots guided by […]

Undocumented migration from Central Vietnam to Laos stretches Vietnamese families and generates marital tensions and social anxieties around the extramarital relationships that migrant hus
bands establish with v ợ hau (second wives), an emic term that encompasses mistresses and more stable partners. This paper sheds light on these processes via an ethnographic study on how […]

Ti Structural conditions shape the temporalities that govern the lives of street sex workers operating in Châu Đốc, a small town in Southern Vietnam. These women live each day as they come and make decisions based on quick returns and the management of daily needs, prioritizing short-term solutions over planning for the future. The ethnographic study of the multiple temporalities that […]

  Le paradigme l’esclavage moderne promeut des analogies avec la traite transatlantique, des Blanches et indigène. L’analogie que certains chercheurs proposent pour décrire la servitude pour dettes hier et aujourd’hui en Asie du Sud-Est conduit à envisager l’hypothèse selon laquelle  les dettes contractées par les prostituées vietnamiennes auprès de prêteurs, proxénètes et intermédiaires de la migration […]

This article proposes an ethnographic examination of the inner workings of unsanctioned informal networks that facilitate the circular migration and labour of Vietnamese sex workers to Singapore. These operations are coordinated by brokers who sell migration services to their clients. I conceptualise them as ‘quasifamily networks’ because kinship bonds, the fact that brokers (‘mothers’) and […]

A NeceThe state of knowledge about finance and credit in Vietnam remains fragmentary despite the interest that economists have shown in the topic over the past fifteen years. This paper explores why informal finance continues to enjoy great popularity among rural households despite its high price and risks in Southern Vietnam. This research note examines […]

Cet article examine l’intrication entre choc exogène, crédit informel et exploitation de la sexualité des femmes par leur famille au Viêt Nam. La recherche sur la prostitution défend la thèse causale selon laquelle la pauvreté et l’endettement des ménages mènent à la prostitution des femmes. Or, les travaux définissent rarement le concept, en outre les ménages visés […]

This essay explores how the family commodifies the sexuality and emotional labor of the daughter for the interests of the family. The case study presented above illustrates the ways in which a commodified sexual economy occurs in the context of an indebted and economically vulnerable household in An Giang Province (Mekong Delta, southern Vietnam). In […]

Cet article prend pour objet l’exploitation sexuelle infantile en Asie du Sud-Est en analysant la représentation victimisante et fortement émotive du mineur vendu pour la prostitution. La construction sociale dont fait l’objet ce phénomène depuis le début des années 1990 est le résultat d’une stratégie réfléchie de la part des organisations non gouvernementales et des […]