“People in the West Are Terribly Naïve, and I Became Naïve As Well”: The Impact of Migration on Moral Values among Vietnamese Bazaar Traders in Poland

• In Event: 190. Mobility and Everyday Moralities in Contemporary Vietnam

Abstract

In my presentation, based on the results of the research conducted among the Vietnamese bazaar traders from Poland, I aim to address the following issue: how did the experience of migration affect their individual system of values, and their attitude towards the norms ruling the social interactions in contemporary Vietnam? In their narratives, the bazaar traders, who have stayed in Poland for more 10 years already, tend to assess negatively the changes taking place in contemporary Vietnam in the post-doi moi Era in the sphere of interpersonal relations, characterizing them as afflicted by growing level of competition and decline of social solidarity. While describing the main differences between the two moral systems, they tend to use such categories as “honesty”, but also “naivity” in respect to Poland (or, more broadly, “the West”), and “slyness” or “being clever” in respect to Vietnam. Relying on the experiences of Vietnamese bazaar traders from Poland, I intend to consider the role played by the system of moral norms as both a factor encouraging them to move to Europe, and as an obstacle to return to Vietnam.

Author

• Grażyna Szymańska-Matusiewicz, University of Warsaw