The homeland and the high seas: cross-border connections between Vietnamese migrant fish workers’ home villages and industrial fisheries

Abstract

Heeding the call to examine industrial fisheries with a migratory lens, this article explores how homeland processes in Vietnam-linked to the 2016 chemical spill-affect migrant fish workers' work on the high seas. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews in Vietnam and Taiwan, my paper relays two findings. First, the disaster's negative consequences undermined many men and women's ability to adequately contribute to household subsistence. Second, the inability to sustain livelihoods in Vietnam compelled migrant fish workers to exchange longer, and potentially more hazardous, workdays for additional wages and wage advances. These findings illustrate the benefits of studying industrial fisheries with a transnational prospective and can be applied to other contexts, such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.