The Road Home: Mekong Delta Infrastructure Still Fails Migrant Workers

It is a familiar homecoming scene every weekend, holiday, and Lunar New Year: two, three, or even four people crammed onto a single motorbike for hours, traveling hundreds of kilometers. These poor workers from the Mekong Delta, who migrated to Hồ Chí Minh City, Bình Dương, Đồng Nai, and other industrial centers for a livelihood, often carry bulky belongings for leaves lasting only a few days.

Their hardship, however, extends beyond the long, grueling distance. The transportation infrastructure connecting the Mekong Delta remains underdeveloped; many routes are deteriorating, and there is a shortage of expressways and major transport corridors.

This decades-long transportation bottleneck makes the journey home for these riverine workers treacherous. As a result, they must not only navigate the daily struggles of migrant labor, but they also have to endure difficult, dangerous trips during periods that are meant for rest and family.

A Difficult and Dangerous Road Home

Most Mekong Delta migrants working in the Southeast region are factory laborers earning base salaries of roughly 6–8 million đồng per month (about $230–$305 USD). Because bus fares rise sharply during peak travel periods, motorbikes remain their primary option for journeys that can span 200 to 400 kilometers each way. 

Traveling from Hồ Chí Minh City, Bình Dương, or Đồng Nai to provinces like An Giang, Kiên Giang, or Cà Mau means that these workers frequently ride up to a thousand kilometers round-trip.

Unfortunately, their route options are severely limited. A lack of expressways and expanded roads funnels nearly all traffic onto main arteries like National Highway 1A, as well as National Highways 80 and 30, forcing travelers to inch forward through severe congestion. [1]

In some sections, roads narrow to just 20 meters wide, offering only two lanes and no median barriers. Motorbikes are left to compete for space alongside passenger cars, buses, and container trucks. At night, when large freight trucks dominate the roads, the risk of accidents surges. 

Furthermore, a single vehicle breakdown can instantly gridlock entire stretches of the highway—a familiar reality that has persisted for decades.

Mekong Delta Transportation Infrastructure Remains Underdeveloped

Progress on roads leading to the Mekong Delta has been stagnant since 1975. Today, the major routes connecting the region to Hồ Chí Minh City and the Southeast still rely heavily on networks established during the French colonial era and later expanded by the Republic of Vietnam 

As noted in research by Ngô Minh Oanh and colleagues in the Journal of Science of Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, French colonial infrastructure in Cochinchina was designed for colonial extraction but ultimately laid the groundwork for southern regional connectivity. [2] 

For instance, the first route linking Sài Gòn and Mỹ Tho was completed in 1880—making it over 140 years old. From there, authorities expanded national highways across Cochinchina to transport rice and goods to Sài Gòn.

This network saw further expansion under the Republic of Vietnam. Because the Mekong Delta’s dense canal system required robust roads and bridges for heavy loads, the region received significant investment. By 1973, South Việt Nam boasted roughly 20,000 kilometers of roads, with the majority of national highways and over half of provincial roads paved and upgraded. [3]

However, following national reunification, infrastructure investment in the region slowed drastically, leaving the Mekong Delta trailing behind other regions.

Before 2020, the entire Mekong Delta possessed a mere 39 kilometers of expressways. Even with an increase to 120 kilometers by early 2024, this figure accounts for just 6% of the national total of over 2,000 kilometers. [4] 

Furthermore, the region holds only 10.9% of the country’s national highway network. The Ministry of Transport assigned it an infrastructure quality score of 2.96 out of 5.0, classifying it as “poor, approaching average.” For decades, National Highway 1A has remained the overwhelming, single lifeline between the Mekong Delta and Hồ Chí Minh City.

A Barrier to Development and a Poverty Trap

Inadequate and underinvested road infrastructure has long constrained growth and fueled persistent poverty across the Mekong Delta, a reality highlighted in a 2011 assessment by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). [5] 

Poor transportation creates a formidable barrier to attracting foreign direct investment (FDI), which limits local employment opportunities. Unable to escape poverty, many residents in remote areas are forced to migrate for work. In fact, research by the World Bank indicates that between 2018 and 2022, the Mekong Delta suffered the sharpest increase in poverty rates nationwide. [6]

Beyond economics, these transportation shortcomings restrict access to vital educational and healthcare services. According to the Mekong Delta Annual Economic Report 2022—produced by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and the Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management at Fulbright University Vietnam—the region has the country’s highest proportion of agricultural workers confined to low-skill occupations. [7] 

It also suffers from the nation’s lowest rate of trained workers, with 57% having completed no more than primary school. As agricultural modernization and mechanization reduce labor demand, this uneducated workforce increasingly abandons their hometowns.

Conversely, better infrastructure is a proven catalyst that can significantly increase economic opportunities and income. A 2025 study surveying over 800 households in Cần Thơ, An Giang, Đồng Tháp, and Tiền Giang demonstrated that better road quality stabilized household incomes and produced long-term social benefits. [8] 

This aligns with an International Monetary Fund (IMF) study of 76 economies between 1980 and 2010, which concluded that improving the quantity and quality of transportation infrastructure substantially raises incomes in targeted areas. [9]

Mekong Delta Residents Becoming Factory Workers

People rarely choose to abandon their homes if local opportunities exist. However, the harsh realities of the Mekong Delta’s poor rural communities—defined by scarce jobs, limited farmland, and uncertain livelihoods—leave residents with little choice.

For many, this poverty has persisted for generations. Following 1975, the new authorities confiscated farmland from families with ties to the Republic of Việt Nam government. Stripped of their livelihoods, they were forced into any available work, ultimately funneling into the ranks of low-wage laborers in foreign-invested industrial zones.

This migration intensified in the 2000s as waves of FDI entered Việt Nam, industrial parks and manufacturing clusters rapidly expanded across Hồ Chí Minh City, Bình Dương, and Đồng Nai. [10] 

In response, waves of young people from the Mekong Delta migrated to these provinces. Phrases like working “up in Bình Dương” or “for a company” became common throughout the Delta, symbolizing the difficult transition from farming fields to selling labor in industrial zones. 

Between 2009 and 2019 alone, over 1.3 million people left the Mekong Delta—an exodus roughly equal to the population of an entire average Vietnamese province.

Today, Hồ Chí Minh City, Bình Dương, and Đồng Nai stand as southern Việt Nam’s economic powerhouses and are among the nation’s largest state revenue contributors. This development has been overwhelmingly driven by poor workers from the Mekong Delta. 

Generation after generation, these migrants have sacrificed their youth and health in factories for modest wages, simultaneously fueling the continued expansion of foreign companies and delivering impressive economic growth statistics for local authorities.

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Thiên Lương wrote this article in Vietnamese and published it in Luật Khoa Magazine on June 12, 2026. Đàm Vĩnh Hằng translated it into English for The Vietnamese Magazine.