Navigating Industrial Work: Lives, Aspirations, and Coping Strategies of Migrant Factory Workers in Vietnam

ABSTRACT In this article we examine how rural‐to‐urban migrant factory workers in two of Vietnam's industrial zones actively construct livelihood stability and pursue future aspirations while dealing with structurally precarious work environments. We develop a multi‐scalar conceptual framework combining key ideas regarding livelihood trajectories, feminist social reproduction theory, and social networks and social capital, and draw on worker interviews in Bình Dương and Bắc Ninh Provinces as well as focus groups with officials and other key stakeholders. While workers' trajectories are shaped by shifting production demands, low wages, housing insecurity, and limited social protection, as well as familial obligations and life events, we find that they actively recalibrate their livelihood strategies and focus on gaining stability through informal income activities, support networks, and future‐oriented planning. Rather than viewing workers as passive subjects of exploitation, our study contributes to scholarship on precarious labour and migration by showing how economic survival, emotional well‐being, and aspirational agency are dynamically interwoven and negotiated over time. We also challenge dominant policy narratives within Vietnam that frame industrial employment as a straightforward path to improved livelihoods, while calling for more integrated policy approaches that recognize the entanglement of labour, housing, and care in sustaining Vietnam's industrial development.