Life Arrangement and Care Provision of Left-behind Elderly in Vietnam: Case Studies in Two Communes in Quang Ngai and Ha Tinh Provinces

Abstract

Since Vietnam commenced the Doi moi (Renovation) process in 1986, besides remarkable achievements, the country has been facing challenges such as increasing inequality and social stratification, fast demographic structural changes, namely fast population ageing. The State has enforced various social security policies to better match with the market economy and socialism orientation, such as labor market policies, social insurance, health insurance, social safety net, which include policies for the elderly care. Meanwhile, family is significant for the well-being of the elderly in the Confucianism-influenced traditional family structure. Recently, ruralurban migration and other demographic and social changes such as more women in the labor force, higher divorce rates, decreasing birth rates, and changing family structures, have led to the increasing number of left-behind elderly in the rural villages, raising an increasing attention both from a theoretical perspective and practical research. This paper provides an analysis of natures of the left-behind elderly to understand alternative modalities and typologies of community network in supporting the elderly people, especially the left-behind and the living alone in order to identify various initiations to sustain Asian cultural values, family relationships, and continuous development of care policies and potential implications in developing a better care mode for the elderly