Just need a place to sleep
In Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan's 12m2 rental room, in addition to an old iron bed and a mini gas stove, there are a few simple household items that are cramped to accommodate, cook, and launder clothes. Mr. Tuan currently works at a company in Thang Long Industrial Park, with an average income of about 7 - 8 million VND/month.
Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan (a worker working at a company in Thang Long Industrial Park) shared: "If I had rented a more spacious house, I would have, but the price was up to 2 - 2.5 million VND/month, not including electricity and water. I chose a room for 1.2 million VND/month, I could use anything, save any amount of money or money".
"Many times when I come home from work, I just want to go to my rented room. The room is cramped and very hot, but the price is cheap, Mr. Tuan added.
Similarly, Ms. Phuong Mai - a worker at a company in Thang Long Industrial Park (Hanoi City) - said: "Most of the workers here are far from home. We rent a room near an industrial park to make it convenient to go to work and save costs.
"The rent for a rental house is 1.2 million VND/month, electricity and water alone. Although old, it is cheap here, it only takes 5 minutes to get to the company from work. My wife and I are both workers, earning a total of about 15 million VND/month. Spending everything, renting a house better is not enough, so we should stay in an old rented house to save some of the living expenses," said Ms. Mai.
According to Ms. Mai, the couple left their hometown to work in Hanoi in the hope of "a few more years, having some capital to return to their hometown to open a small shop and do business to make a living".
"Here, life is only surrounded by four walls, far from home, far from children. My husband and I miss our children very much, but for life, we have to encourage each other to try to save some capital, hoping to return to our hometown to work soon," Ms. Mai shared.
Don't want to be away from home forever
Mr. Nguyen Van Cuong (from Nghe An) said that the average salary of workers in Thang Long Industrial Park currently ranges from 7 - 10 million VND/month. However, with the cost of living in Hanoi increasingly high, that amount is just enough to cover expenses.
"Wishing for a salary increase is something every worker is waiting for. We just hope life will be less difficult, and we will have some savings to feel secure in sticking with the business, said Mr. Cuong.
According to Mr. Cuong, he started working in 2020, initially only planned to work for a few years and then return to his hometown. But year after year, the savings are not much, whether it is rent, money sent back to parents in the countryside, living expenses... all are taken away.
In my hometown, I have a piece of land where I can open a small business. I plan to work for a few more years, trying to save about 100 - 200 million VND to return to my hometown to work. Honestly, we workers just hope to increase our salary to make life less difficult and have some leftovers. If they had accumulated 3 - 4 million VND per additional month, many people could have had the dream of returning to their hometown to open a shop and do small business, Mr. Cuong confided.
