Living in Vietnam

Vietnam pays toward the lower end of the global scale, and with living costs running low to match, what is left once a typical life is paid for stays thin. The draw is less the surplus than the momentum, since this is a fast-moving economy still taking shape. Getting hired without local roots is difficult, though English opens more doors here than across many of its neighbors, particularly in IT and in hospitality and tourism. The foothold for a newcomer is real if narrow, and the money speaks more to the present than to the cushion.

Vietnam sends far more people abroad than it takes in: its diaspora of about 3.7M — the world's 21st-largest — dwarfs a foreign-born population of under 196K, and it has grown 36% over the past decade. Vietnamese abroad are led by the United States (1.4M), Japan, and Australia, while the modest inflow comes mainly from China and South Korea.