Career development of returnees: experienced constraints and navigating strategies of returnees in Vietnam

ABSTRACT

The number of international returnees is increasing in emerging economies. However, very little has been known about their career development in their home country. This study explored how Vietnamese returnees from Australia developed their career after returning to Vietnam. The study deployed a qualitative approach using in-depth interviews with 15 returnees of Australian universities. The findings revealed the returnees faced a range of barriers hindering their career progression amongst which ‘the rigid working culture’ was the most significant and ‘stereotyped perceptions about Australian qualifications’ was an emerging issue due to recent changes in economy and society in Vietnam. The findings revealed three main strategies that the returnees utilised to negotiate their employability including being ‘navigator’, being ‘rebels, and being ‘retreatist’. The findings also revealed that there was not a simple answer to whether Australian education outcomes were useful and applicable in Vietnam or not because the usefulness and application were determined by the extent to which the returnees could be able to use their overseas skills and knowledge. The study provided insights about constraints and opportunities in the home market and enrich the current literature about the returnee phenomenon. These insights would support international students to better support their plans for career development upon their return.

KEYWORDS:

• Vietnam
• returnees
• Australia
• career
• employment
• employability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Thanh Pham

Dr. Thanh Pham is currently a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Education, Monash University, Australia. Thanh has worked in higher eductaion for ten years. She has produced over 50 publications including books, book chapters, textbooks, journal articles, magazine articles and others. She has presented her work and did keynote at 20 conferences. Her work has been published with Routledge, Springer, Higher Education Research and Development. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, Pedagogies. Thanh is currently researching graduate employability and is having a number of journal articles in press and under review in this field with prestigious journals including Globalisation, Societies and Education, International Journal of Educational Development and Studies in Higher Education. She is teaching in both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in areas of teacher education, career readiness and research methodology. Thanh has received numerous local and international awards for research in internationalization of education and graduate employability.

Eisuke Saito

Dr. Eisuke Saito currently works as a lecturer for the Faculty of Education, Monash University (Australia). Before joining Monash University, Eisuke served for National Institute of Education, Singapore and was a consultant for international educational development in developing Asian countries. Eisuke researches in school reform, teacher professional development, education policy and pedagogical reform. He has more than 30 journal articles on prestigious journals including Compare, Education Review, Higher Education Research and Development and several sole-authored and edited books.