WATERING THE NEIGHBOUR'S GARDEN: THE GROWING - CICRED

TRANSNATIONAL MIGRATION, MARRIAGE AND TRAFFICKING…
my children. I was shocked to discover that life there was
even worse than here. I could not live. I stayed for a few
months only” (Trafficked woman).
Economic hardship, in combination with cultural differences,
made their experience bitter:
“It’s really hard. I left my home village but there I also
lived in a poor rural commune, in the mountainous area.
The weather is different. I do not know their language. I
became very home sick. So I left” (Returnee).
The respondent admitted that her Chinese husband was very nice
to her. She had a daughter with him, but as her economic expectation
could not be fulfilled, she took her daughter back to Vietnam.
4.2. Women trafficked to work in prostitution
Quantitative data of the survey shows that of the total 213
women, 23 (10.8 percent) worked in prostitution in China. They served
at least two clients a day while working in various establishments in
Chinese towns. The number of clients they served, however, can be
much higher. For example, 87.5 percent of them had to serve at least 5
clients a day and even 25 percent of them had to serve 10-15 clients a
day.
A returnee reported:
“The sisters [other sex worker] when they just arrived often
served up to 20 clients a day. Now they serve less, but
at least 3 or 4 clients a day”.
Few women in the study sample voluntarily worked in the sex sector
in China, as most of them were forced to work (86 percent). Sometimes,
enforcement is as harsh as the following experience reported by
one of the women:
“She is from Gia Lam, Ha Noi. She is now about 28, 29
years old. She loved a man when she was 15... She got
pregnant... She was cheated by her friend and sold to
China. She was eighth-month pregnant but they [employers]
steamed her child out so that she can work. It was a
boy.”
Once being held to work as sex workers, it was very difficult for
women to escape.
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