Viet Nam is a major sending country of migrant workers to South-East and East Asia with Malaysia and Taiwan the top destination countries. The Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) estimates that 400,000 Vietnamese workers were abroad by mid 2006.

There were 37,941 recorded migrant workers in Malaysia in 2006 compared to 24,605 in 2005, and 22,784 migrants employed in Taiwan in 2005 compared to 14,127 in 2006. To a lesser extent, Vietnamese migrant workers are employed in the Republic of Korea, Japan and in the Gulf countries.

Estimates from MOLISA refer to officially deployed migrant workers; however many have moved to bordering Cambodia, Lao PDR and China without going through official channels.

Although there is lack of reliable data on the number of Vietnamese workers in Cambodia, it is estimated that there are at least 150,000 of them there.

As in the Philippines, migration in Viet Nam is considered a socioeconomic strategy to alleviate poverty. Recent estimates show that remittances from Vietnamese migrant workers amounted to USD 6.82 billion in 2006 and are expected to exceed USD 7.5 billion in 2008.

Viet Nam has become a source and destination country for trafficked men, women and children. Although substantive information on its scope and health risks is lacking, the migration phenomenon of Vietnamese brides to the Republic of Korea and Taiwan raises trafficking, abuse and HIV vulnerability concerns.

Thousands of Vietnamese refugees are abroad and internal displacement remains an issue. UNHCR estimates that there were 374,000 Vietnamese refugees as of January 2007, one of the highest recorded worldwide.