Nearly 4,500 Vietnamese renounce citizenship in 2015

By August 28, 2016 | 12:26 am PT

A growing number of people are turning in their passports in search of better jobs and education abroad.

As many as 4,474 individuals renounced their Vietnamese citizenships in 2015, according to data released by the Ministry of Justice.

Official statistics show the renunciation list for the second quarter of this year contains 2,699 names.

According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN/DESA), nearly 100,000 Vietnamese people leave their country each year to live in a more developed country.

It is estimated that from 1990 to 2015, as many as 2.6 million Vietnamese citizens migrated overseas.

Vietnam recorded $12.25 billion in overseas remittances last year, slightly up from $12 billion in 2014, according to data released by the central bank.

Remittances from overseas Vietnamese remain a key part of the country's economy, equivalent to about 8 percent of gross domestic product. More than half of the capital comes from the United States, which had 1.5 million citizens of Vietnamese origin in 2010.

The growing number of Vietnamese people leaving the country is significantly related to employment and education opportunities overseas.

According to the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, more than 80,000 Vietnamese workers leave the country each year to work abroad.

The U.S., Australia and the U.K. are the favorite destinations for Vietnamese students. Vietnam now has the sixth most students in U.S. colleges and universities at 28,883, spending nearly $1 billion, according to the latest quarterly update published in December 2015 by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The growing trend of Vietnamese people breaking ties with the land of their birth poses a serious problem – brain drain, experts say.

Of the five million overseas Vietnamese, about 300,000 are directly involved in scientific and technological development, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, highlighting the fact that Vietnam needs their expertise back in the country.

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