Alternative development trajectories? A mixed methods analysis of religion as a vector of mobility and education among the Hmong in upland Vietnam

What can Vietnam's Population and Housing Census Data tell us about profound socio-economic transformations among the most marginalised communities of upland Vietnam?

In this lecture I grapple with the intersections between widespread Hmong Protestant conversion over the past 35 years, migration pathways, educational attainment and economic development indicators. Quantitative data analysis reveals some significant trends which corroborate previous qualitative fieldwork.

Firstly, Hmong Protestantism is associated with distinct migration routes down to the Central Highlands or to more remote areas of the Northwest highlands, suggesting an intentional distancing from state influence. Secondly, Hmong Protestants exhibit different rural livelihoods dynamics with regard to crop diversification and household economic practices.

Thirdly, while non-Protestant Christians engage to a greater degree in formal education, unschooled Christians have relatively higher levels of literacy. This all points to the salience of what we call ‘alternative routes to development’ among different sectors of the Hmong population in Vietnam, which may be differentiated by both religious and geographical factors.

• Speaker: Dr Seb Rumsby (University of Birmingham)
• Chair: Prof Michael Charney (SOAS)

About the speaker

Former SOAS alumni Seb Rumsby is an interdisciplinary scholar with a wide range of interests including everyday politics, labour exploitation, undocumented migration, ethno-religious politics, grassroots development and non-national histories. Seb unites these diverse themes with an empirical focus on Southeast Asian worlds and people, having studied BA Vietnamese and International Development and MA South East Asian Studies at SOAS.

He has recently published his first monograph, Development in Spirit: Religious Transformation and Everyday Politics in Vietnam’s Highlands, with University of Wisconsin press.

Registration

This event if free and open to the public. 

• Organiser: SOAS Centre of South East Asian Studies
• Contact email: centres@soas.ac.uk