Nicolas Lainez (Ph.D. in Anthropology) | Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD - France) (original) (raw)

Thesis by Nicolas Lainez (Ph.D. in Anthropology)

À partir d’une enquête sur la traite prostitutionnelle conduite au Viêt Nam, au Cambodge et à Sin... more À partir d’une enquête sur la traite prostitutionnelle conduite au Viêt Nam, au Cambodge et à Singapour, cette thèse propose une anthropologie économique des relations intimes que les femmes prostituées vietnamiennes nouent avec des opérateurs informels de crédit, avec des facilitateurs de la migration prostitutionnelle, avec des employeurs de l’industrie sexuelle, avec leur famille ainsi qu’avec les hommes qui rétribuent leurs services. Alors que l’économie de marché, à laquelle le Viêt Nam adhère depuis les réformes du Renouveau (Đổi mới) en 1986, pousse ces femmes à entreprendre, à investir, à s’endetter, à consommer et à migrer, de nombreuses embûches se dressent sur leur chemin : exclusion du marché de crédit, coût élevé de la migration transnationale régulée, obligations de solidarité familiale, inégalités de genre, risques de stigmatisation. Pour se frayer un chemin dans cet univers d’opportunités et de contraintes, elles utilisent l’intimité comme une ressource polyvalente et stratégique afin d’augmenter leurs marges de manœuvre et d’étoffer leurs répertoires d’action.
La réflexion proposée s’appuie sur un concept capable de rendre compte de la fluidité des parcours et de l’articulation entre économie et intimité : les carrières intimes. Cette perspective invite à examiner les parcours de dette à la lumière de l’évolution récente des marchés financiers et de la migration prostitutionnelle, mais aussi les trajectoires de care au regard du régime « familialiste » de bien-être promu par l’État, les carrières sexuelles au prisme des inégalités de genre et notamment de la division sexuelle du travail, ainsi que les carrières morales en référence à la politique de lutte contre les « fléaux sociaux ».
Nourrie d’un solide socle empirique privilégiant l’ethnographie économique de l’intime et le suivi longitudinal ainsi que d’une longue expérience avec les ONG luttant contre la traite en Asie du Sud-Est, cette recherche dépasse rapidement son objet initial, la traite, pour mettre en relief des aspects inédits de la vie des femmes vietnamiennes et interroger la place de l’intimité dans l’économie de marché. Sur le plan théorique, ce travail construit son objet sur l’anthropologie de l’esclavage, sur la sociologie « déconstructiviste » de la traite, sur la sociologie économique de l’intimité et sur la sociologie des carrières.

This thesis, based on fieldwork on sex trafficking conducted in Vietnam, Cambodia and Singapore, formulates an economic anthropology of intimate relations that conceptualises Vietnamese sex workers as embedded in relations with informal creditors, sex migration brokers, employers in the sex industry, their families and their clients. While the market economy embraced by Vietnam since the launch of the Đổi mới reforms in 1986 encourages women to invest, become indebted, consume and migrate, several obstacles stand in their way : exclusion from formal credit markets, high cost of regulated labor migration, familial obligations, gender inequalities and the risk of stigmatisation. To make their way in this world of opportunities and constraints, they use intimacy as a multipurpose and strategic resource to strengthen their leverage in dealing with these constraints.
The framework I propose is based on a concept, careers of intimacy, that takes into account the fluidity of their trajectories and the articulation between economy and intimacy. This perspective examines the trajectories of debt in light of the recent evolution of financial markets and transnational migration for sex work ; the trajectories of care with regard to the familialist welfare regime promoted by the state ; sexual careers through the prism of gender inequalities, and notably the sexual division of labour ; and moral careers with reference to state-initiated campaigns against « social evils ».
Based on solid ethnographic work that focused on the economic ethnography of intimacy, a longitudinal approach and my considerable experience with NGOs working on anti-trafficking in Southeast Asia, this research quickly went beyond its initial objective – human trafficking – to unveil the private lives of Vietnamese women which were inextricably tied to the market economy. Thus, the research became an investigation of the place of intimacy in the market economy. The theoretical moorings of this research are the anthropology of slavery, the « deconstructivist » approach towards trafficking discourses and practices, the economic sociology of intimacy and the sociology of careers.

Journal Articles by Nicolas Lainez (Ph.D. in Anthropology)

Asian Journal of Law and Society, p. 1–32, 2023

Artificial intelligence (AI) and big data are transforming the credit market around the world. Al... more Artificial intelligence (AI) and big data are transforming the credit market around the world. Algorithmic credit scoring (ACS) is increasingly used to assess borrowers’ creditworthiness, using technology to glean non-traditional data from smartphones and analyze them through machine-learning algorithms. These processes promise efficiency, accuracy, and cost-effectiveness compared with traditional credit scoring. However, this technology raises public concerns about opacity, unfair discrimination, and threats to individual privacy and autonomy. Many countries in Southeast Asia are introducing ACS in consumer finance markets, although—even with the significant concerns raised—there is an ongoing and concerning lag in oversight and regulation of the process. Regulation is vital to delivering big data and AI promises in the financial services market, while ensuring fairness and public interest. This article utilizes Vietnam, where the lending industry deploys ACS but in a situation of legal limbo, as a case-study to analyze the consequences of this technology. Vietnam is one of the foremost Southeast Asian countries in which ACS usage is spreading rapidly, and this provides an excellent opportunity to review the regulation, or lack thereof, and determine the implications that this may have for other countries that are currently introducing ACS in consumer finance markets. The article concludes with a proposal to regulate ACS in Vietnam based on international regulation and guidelines on ACS, data privacy, and AI to enable a transparent, accessible, and fair process.

Réseaux 238-9, p. 153-179, 2023

Distribution électronique Cairn.info pour La Découverte. Distribution électronique Cairn.info pou... more Distribution électronique Cairn.info pour La Découverte. Distribution électronique Cairn.info pour La Découverte. La reproduction ou représentation de cet article, notamment par photocopie, n'est autorisée que dans les limites des conditions générales d'utilisation du site ou, le cas échéant, des conditions générales de la licence souscrite par votre établissement. Toute autre reproduction ou représentation, en tout ou partie, sous quelque forme et de quelque manière que ce soit, est interdite sauf accord préalable et écrit de l'éditeur, en dehors des cas prévus par la législation en vigueur en France. Il est précisé que son stockage dans une base de données est également interdit. Article disponible en ligne à l'adresse Article disponible en ligne à l'adresse https://www.cairn.info/revue-reseaux-2023-2-page-153.htm Découvrir le sommaire de ce numéro, suivre la revue par email, s'abonner... Flashez ce QR Code pour accéder à la page de ce numéro sur Cairn.info.

Journal of Vietnamese Studies, 2021

"H ello! There is money. No need for a household certificate, identity card." This poster glued t... more "H ello! There is money. No need for a household certificate, identity card." This poster glued to a wall by a moneylender in an alleyway of Hồ Chí Minh City transformed my research agenda (Figure , all translations mine). I stumbled upon it by chance while I was conducting field research on credit and debt in the sex industry. My goal was to understand why Vietnam-ese sex workers could easily access credit from pimps, employers, and moneylenders despite struggling to repay it, or as one borrower eloquently put it, why it was "easy to borrow but hard to repay" [khi mượn thì dễ, khi trả mới khó].  While I was engrossed in decrypting the inner workings of money-lending practices through in-depth interviews and the examination of debt records, I could not see that the finance sector was thriving in Vietnam, in particular informal and formal credit markets. The discovery of the poster made me realize that the walls of Hồ Chí Minh City were covered with ads from moneylenders. I then realized that banks, pawnshops, and consumer lending companies were also mushrooming and competing to attract borrowers. In short, by wandering in the streets away from my informants and looking at credit and debt through the viewfinder instead, I became cognizant that a financial transformation that took off in the mid-s was occurring. Although crucial to my study, the change in the financial landscape had escaped me as it was novel to me. Photography revealed it to me.

Geoforum, 2020

In popular thinking, debt evokes notions of vulnerability and bondage, while irregular migration ... more In popular thinking, debt evokes notions of vulnerability and bondage, while irregular migration for sex work conjures up the hazards of human trafficking and modern slavery 1. These perceptions inform 'safe migration' policies aimed at ordering and regulating migration and combating informality to increase migrants' safety and well-being; the assumption being that illegality puts migrants at risk of abuse. This article challenges these assumptions with an ethnographic study of brokerage practices in the quasi-family networks that facilitate the irregular and circular migration of Vietnamese sex workers to Singapore. In these networks, brokers sell a migration package on credit to their clients, the migrant sex workers, who repay it through sexual labour. This package includes all the services necessary for the women to migrate temporarily and work safely in Singapore. Most crucially, it serves as an entrée into the broker's business and social network, as a way of forming an enduring relationship. Without denying the power of debt to create inequality, obligation and exploitation, this article shows that debt can also be a profitable, non-coercive and reciprocal device for brokers and sex workers alike, a vector of 'safety' which limits some of the risks they encounter in a repressive and uncertain host environment. This finding stems from a novel framework in economic anthropology, the 'socio-economy of debt' (Guérin, 2018), which complicates moral views of debt through an empirical examination of the materiality, power dynamics and social and moral meanings of debt arrangements and relationships.

The Sociological Review, 2020

Cultural interpretations of the sex trade are pervasive in Southeast Asia, in particular, the arg... more Cultural interpretations of the sex trade are pervasive in Southeast Asia, in particular, the argument that daughters enrol in sex work to repay a debt of life and support their parents. While useful to illuminate the role of culture in shaping economic action, this narrative carries the risk of viewing people as robots guided by stable and supra-individual forces. Drawing on ethnographic data collected in Southern Vietnam and Cambodia on precarious and indebted Vietnamese families that encourage their daughters to sell sex, this article disturbs deterministic cultural accounts of sex work by describing how families interpret, negotiate and (re)produce cultural scripts through relational work. More specifically, it shows how these families draw from familistic scripts about hierarchy, duty and sacrifice conveyed in popular culture to assemble relational packages. Deeply imbued in affective undercurrents and power asymmetry, these packages allow families to negotiate taboo trades like the repayment of debt through the sale of their daughter's virginity. Overall, a relational work framework provides a better understanding of female participation in the sex trade in Vietnam than explanations based on normative accounts of culture or problematic trafficking binaries.

Culture, Health & Sexuality, 2020

Undocumented migration from Central Vietnam to Laos stretches Vietnamese families and generates m... more Undocumented migration from Central Vietnam to Laos stretches Vietnamese families and generates marital tensions and social anxieties around the extramarital relationships that migrant husbands establish with vợ hầu (second wives), an emic term that encompasses mistresses and more stable partners. This paper sheds light on these processes via an ethnographic study on how migration from Central Vietnam to Savannakhet – a town located in Central Laos bordering Thailand – shapes family formation, marital relationships and double standards in gender and sexuality. It argues that husbands and first and second wives manage these issues by preserving family integrity, negotiating extramarital relationships and retreating from marriage. These strategies are shaped by and constitutive of normative double standards that families refer to, reinforce and in some cases transcend to make sense of the marital challenges and disruptions caused by dislocation, translocality and the intrusion of second wives in their marriages. Overall, the study emphasises that families remain committed to a domestic division of labour and to the institutions of marriage and family, albeit with some adjustments. This argument resonates with broader discussions about migration, gender and sexuality in Vietnam.

American Anthropologist, 2018

The modern-slavery paradigm promotes analogies between contemporary trafficking and the transatla... more The modern-slavery paradigm promotes analogies between contemporary trafficking and the transatlantic , white, and indigenous slave trade. The analogy some scholars use to address debt bondage in past and present Southeast Asia prompted me to consider the hypothesis that the debts incurred by Vietnamese sex workers with moneylenders, procurers, and migration brokers are a remnant of indigenous slavery. However, the ethnographic and legalistic study of debt in the Vietnamese sex sector across Southeast Asia in relation to debt-bondage traditions provides limited support to the transhistorical thesis. Nonetheless, it throws light on the creditor–debtor relationship and shows that sex workers need credit to finance production and social reproduction in a region undergoing rapid capitalist development, and that because of their exclusion from financial, labor, and labor migration markets, they access it through personalized arrangements that generate strong obligations and dependencies with the potential for restrictions of freedom, in a social structure that promotes patronage, vertical bonding, and dependency. [debt,

Time & Society, 2019

Structural conditions shape the temporalities that govern the lives of street sex workers operati... more Structural conditions shape the temporalities that govern the lives of street sex workers operating in Châu-D ^ oc, a small town in Southern Vietnam. These women live each day as they come and make decisions based on quick returns and the management of daily needs, prioritizing short-term solutions over planning for the future. The ethnographic study of the multiple temporalities that govern street sex work, family care, gambling and debt-juggling practices shows that these women live in a frantic present-oriented temporality that is filled with pressing tasks and routines. This leads to an uncertain future that engenders various forms of hopeful and speculative behaviour, but precludes systematic planning. As a result, these women are treading water: putting effort into keep themselves afloat but never furthering their status and lives or catching up with the currents of development and progress. Overall, this article argues that this day-today lifestyle goes hand in hand with the linear and future-oriented time of capitalism and wage-labour that has infiltrated everyday life in post-reform Vietnam.

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 2019

This article proposes an ethnographic examination of the inner workings of unsanctioned informal ... more This article proposes an ethnographic examination of the inner
workings of unsanctioned informal networks that facilitate the
circular migration and labour of Vietnamese sex workers to
Singapore. These operations are coordinated by brokers who sell
migration services to their clients. I conceptualise them as ‘quasifamily
networks’ because kinship bonds, the fact that brokers
(‘mothers’) and sex workers (‘daughters’) operate under the
framework of a family ethos which allows them to establish
intimate and unequal relationships, and socialising and
reproductive processes inscribed in the family form, are defining
structural features. The study of these organisational and
operational traits allows us to consider a new network model in
the field of transnational unsanctioned migration for sex work,
and to discuss issues of network structure, adaptability and
reproduction in repressive market environments in relation to the
family form.

Journal of Vietnamese Studies, 2012

This essay explores how the family commodifies the sexuality and emotional labor of the daughter ... more This essay explores how the family commodifies the sexuality and emotional labor of the daughter for the interests of the family. The case study presented above illustrates the ways in which a commodified sexual economy occurs in the context of an indebted and economically vulnerable household in An Giang Province (Mekong Delta, southern Vietnam). In this family, “transactional sex” is one of the resources employed to ameliorate the debt incurred. The study shows the ways in which the mother provides, initiates, and maintains the conditions for the sexual commodification of her daughter through the power situated within the mother-daughter relationship and the narrative of gratitude and duty.

Journal of Southeast Asian Economies, 2014

The state of knowledge about finance and credit in Vietnam remains fragmentary despite the intere... more The state of knowledge about finance and credit in Vietnam remains fragmentary despite the interest that economists have shown in the topic over the past fifteen years. This paper explores why informal finance continues to enjoy great popularity among rural households despite its high price and risks in Southern Vietnam. This research note examines in detail three modes of credit, and shows that borrowers’ perception of informal credit does not always correspond to that of government financial and international institutions. The social dimension of informal finance is crucial to understanding its prevalence, adaptability and continuity in Vietnam. From the point of view of the borrowers, informal credit is not perceived as an evil but rather an economic necessity.

Autrepart, 2013

En prenant comme objet le crédit et la dette dans un contexte situé – des ménages du delta du Sud... more En prenant comme objet le crédit et la dette dans un contexte situé – des ménages du delta du Sud du Viêt Nam au sein desquels les femmes exerce la prostitution, le milieu de la prostitution à Ho Chi Minh Ville –, cet article entreprend un défi consistant à réunir deux champs épistémologiques ordinairement distants. Le premier relève de l’économie de la pauvreté et du développement, qui s’intéresse aux transformations du marché du crédit vietnamien depuis deux décennies. Le second rejoint celui des études sur la prostitution, obnubilées au Viêt Nam par la question de l’endettement, mais peu enclines à dialoguer avec les économistes sur ce sujet. Ce croisement disciplinaire permet d’améliorer la compréhension de la manière dont les difficultés économiques, notamment celles qui résultent de l’endettement, sont gérées par des ménages à faibles revenus dont les filles exercent la prostitution.

Book Chapters by Nicolas Lainez (Ph.D. in Anthropology)

This paper deals with the issue of child sexual exploitation in Southeast Asia by analyzing the h... more This paper deals with the issue of child sexual exploitation in Southeast Asia by analyzing the highly emotive and victimizing representation of the minors sold for prostitution. The social construction that has shaped this phenomenon since the early 1990s has resulted in a thoughtful strategy undertaken by institutional and non-governmental actors whose mission is to combat against what they considered an “intolerable” scourge.
The victim’s representation stresses both the innocence and the injustice inherent to her tragedy. It also stages the physical suffering and cultural differences. This representation fits with the “policy of pity” that Luc Boltanski has defined as the observation at distance of an unfortunate victim by a spectator. A third agent beneficial or executioner can be added to this tandem whose function is to reinforce indignation and therefore the viewer’s call for commitment.

First publlshl·d ln 01 2 by BergiHtb11 !]t~uks www.b ergh :1hnb ook~. ·om © 2012 David Haines, Ke... more First publlshl·d ln 01 2 by BergiHtb11 !]t~uks www.b ergh :1hnb ook~. ·om © 2012 David Haines, Keiko Y, m:••• :dw, a11d Shinji Yam as hita All rights reserved . Except for the pHll i•t lon of' short passages for the purposes of criticism and r ·vi ·w, 110 parr of chi s book m ay be reproduced in any form o r by an y 111 ·ans, clectroni c o r m echanical , including photocopying, r ' o rdl ng, or any informatio n storage and retri eval system now known o1 · 10 1 ~,; in vented, without written permiss ion r 1 h . pub li shcr. Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publl nt ion Data Wlnd ow t· w:w.: r : migration in an east Asian context 1 edit •d by 1 :w id W. ll al n ·s, 1 ·iko Yama naka, Shinji Yam ashita. 1 . m . --(Fo undations in Asia Pacifie Studies; v. 2) J n lu 1 •s hil l iog r:~phica l references and index. 1S I3N ( ?H-0-H ? ltS -740-0 (hardback: alk. paper) l. E thn olugy--l·:ast Asia. 2 . East Asia--Emigration and immi g rati o n. 3 . East Asia--Ethnic rclari o ns. ft. East As ia--Social life and customs. I. Hain ·s, Dav id W II . Yam anaka, Keiko. 111. Y:un ashi ra, Shinji. G N635.E5W 6 20 1 30 5.80095--d 23 British Library ataJoguing in Publication Data 20 120 12507 A ca talogue reco rd fo r this book is ava il able from the British Library Printed in th e U ni td Statt:s o n acid-free paper. ISBN 978-0-8574 5-740-0 (hardback) IS BN 978-0-85745-74 1-7 (ebook) flj ~!fo * ) 1 [ fcHAPTERI

Research Reports by Nicolas Lainez (Ph.D. in Anthropology)

AAT Research Report, 2020

This study examines indebtedness and moneylending in the lives of sex workers. It locates indebte... more This study examines indebtedness and moneylending in the lives of sex workers. It locates indebtedness in broader issues such as internal migration, financial exclusion and the reliance on informal finance to get by, the grip of moneylending practices in labor sectors, moral narratives on ‘evil’ usurers, and rapidly rising household debt in Vietnam.

This paper, based on 18 months’ fieldwork in the Mekong Delta, addresses the issue of women’s cro... more This paper, based on 18 months’ fieldwork in the Mekong Delta, addresses the issue of women’s cross-border mobility for the aim of prostitution between Southern Vietnam and Cambodia. The goal is to update existing research carried out in Cambodia in the late 1990s by Western researchers commissioned by aid organizations, and to bring a Vietnamese perspective into the picture. Research had explained mobility from Vietnam in the late 1990s in terms of the easy money female migrant prostitutes could earn in Cambodia. According to my findings, the situation has changed and this paper explores why. Although illegal migration for prostitution from Vietnam to Phnom Penh remains an easy alternative, it appears less attractive than in the late 1990s and early 2000s in the context of increasing globalization and inter-connections in Asia.
First, the paper examines the situation on the ground in the late 1990s: cross-border mobility and routes in the Mekong Delta, and Vietnamese prostitution in Phnom Penh, especially in the Vietnamese enclave of Svay Pak. Brothel owners from this red light district recruited thousands of Vietnamese migrant sex workers by offering them a payday advance that they had to reimburse by providing sexual services. Moreover, among the causes that motivated cross-mobility for the purpose of sexual commerce, indebtedness occupied a prime place. Second, the paper explores the reasons underlying the obvious change of perception by potential unskilled migrants who no longer perceive Cambodia as some sort El Dorado and therefore an appealing destination. Various reasons explain this change, like increased awareness of the risks of deception, debt bondage and exploitation thanks to campaigns against human trafficking. Another factor is the increased availability of more attractive professional options, such as internal migration for prostitution to provinces along the Mekong Delta, to Ho Chi Minh City and its suburban provinces undergoing rapid industrialization and economic growth. This paper demonstrates that nowadays mobility from An Giang province to Cambodia is no longer relevant.

This study is the second in a series of three, the objective of which is to understand internatio... more This study is the second in a series of three, the objective of which is to understand international mobility undertaken for the purposes of prostitution and forms of commercial sex by low-skilled women and female minors from the Mekong Delta.
The first study addresses cross-border mobility for prostitution between the Vietnamese southern province of An Giang and Cambodia. Field investigation shows that this flow of mobility, which attracted a significant number of women in the 1990s, has now dried up in Vietnam, essentially because Cambodia is no longer viewed as a destination for easy money but rather a dangerous and unwelcoming country.
The initial objective of the second study was to confirm the hypothesis that Southern Vietnamese women no longer migrate to Cambodia for prostitution. Preliminary investigations in the capital rapidly confirmed that nowadays the majority of the Vietnamese women involved in commercial sex are Vietnamese who are resident in Cambodia and not new economic migrants from Southern Vietnam. The research objective was therefore redirected toward the study of legal aspects and living conditions of Vietnamese in Cambodia, and the study of two forms of transfer and selling of sexual services of minors: the sale of virginity and the sale of young children.
The third study addresses the mobility of Vietnamese women for prostitution in Singapore. The objective is to broaden the field investigation undertaken in the Mekong Delta and in Cambodia by following Vietnamese migrant prostitutes in their transnational movement to wealthy Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia and Singapore.

The goal of this study is to explore how the Vietnamese populations live and perceive forms of sale of sexual services and persons in Cambodia.
Firstly, it is necessary to contextualize the legal and socioeconomic framework deriving from historical events within which the Vietnamese of Cambodia evolve, and that make them particularly vulnerable. Being excluded from Cambodian citizenship and most of them not holding Vietnamese nationality, they are stateless people who live in a legal void. Consequently, they are confronted with several obstacles that prevent them from being fully integrated into Cambodia. Among the causes that motivate the prostitution of young women, family indebtedness figures high. The fieldwork reveals the existence of an endogenous financial sector run by moneylenders who provide loans at high interest rates. Once in debt, borrowers may push their daughters to sell their virginity or to engage in prostitution to alleviate the economic burden.
Secondly, two forms of the transfer and selling of sexual services of minors are addressed: the virginity sale and the sale of young children.
The sale of virginity is relatively frequent among the elements of our sample. In the case study presented, the mother pushes the family’s economic burden onto her daughters as soon as they are old enough to generate income with their bodies. While according to Confucian precepts parents ought to preserve the virginity of their daughters until marriage, in fact they organize its commodification and monopolize the profits.
The sale of a child for adoption has emerged in these communities. Oral tales and news clips give evidence of a market of children for sale for adoption. Informants involved in the trade make a distinction between the “gift of a child” (cho con) and the “sale of a child” (bán con). The gift is made to families for a payment that is lower than the price of a sale. The sale is negotiated for a price beween some hundreds and some thousands of US dollars. The motivations, modus operandi and representations utilized by actors try to make morally acceptable what is otherwise a legally forbidden transaction.

The recruitment process of Vietnamese migrant entertainers reveals a complex network of exchange ... more The recruitment process of Vietnamese migrant entertainers reveals a complex network of exchange that links the Vietnamese operators within Singapore with the migrant entertainers in Vietnam. This informal and clientelist network is composed of migration brokers and their long-standing customers who introduce and assist new customers in the transnational movement between Vietnam and Singapore. The brokers offer migration services on credit, as an incentive to recruit clients, that migrant sex workers repay in Singapore. Moreover, they are able to expand their customer base by incorporating the networks of their previous customers, who in turn become peers of the new recruits. The network appears to be a well-organized and non-exploitative voluntary exchange system. It functions effectively because of the symbiotic relationship between the migration brokers and the migrant entertainers. One of the key findings of this research is that trafficking for sexual exploitation of Vietnamese sampled women and minors to Singapore is irrelevant.
As described in the report, three factors created transience in the life of the entertainers.
Firstly, all entertainers entered Singapore on 30-day Social Visit Passes. This scheme does not allow foreign visitors to engage in any form of employment, including prostitution. Officials from the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) routinely refuse entry and expel Vietnamese female travelers suspected of coming to Singapore to work in the prostitution industry. Vietnamese migrant entertainers typically rely on professional migration brokers who provide services to enable their customers to slip through the net of the ICA.
Secondly, after the expiry of their 30-day Social Visit Pass, the migrant entertainers of the study faced two options: they could either return to Vietnam or extend their stay in Singapore. The majority sought to avoid raising the suspicions of the immigration authorities and returned home for a few months, before coming back to Singapore. Those wishing to extend their stay had several methods at their disposal: extending the social visit pass, exiting and returning to Singapore to obtain a new social visit pass, acquiring a Performing Artist Work Permit, or getting genuinely or fraudulently married to a Singaporean citizen or permanent resident. The decision to extend the stay depended on personal motivations and financial resources, as well as on the availability of services provided by the Vietnamese migration broker and Singaporean sponsors.
Lastly, the Anti-Vice Enforcement Unit (AVEU) relies on raids and on deportations as key mechanisms to control foreign prostitution in Singapore. Red light areas like Geylang, Joo Chiat and Orchard Towers are regularly raided, and arrested entertainers are deported to their home country at their own expense.
As a consequence of these three factors, the Vietnamese migrant entertainers of the study were constantly straddling Singapore and Vietnam. They were only allowed to stay in Singapore for 30 days at any one time and upon the expiry of the pass, they would return to Vietnam, with the intention of returning at another time. Consequently, while living in Singapore, they were either looking for ways to extend their stay, or thinking about their return to Vietnam. This was pervasive: upon arrival, they were already thinking about the return trip, and vice-versa. They lived lives of transience and evanescence. In fact, even when they were physically in one space, they were mentally in the other.

Working Papers by Nicolas Lainez (Ph.D. in Anthropology)

Economics Working Paper, 2021

Artificial intelligence (AI) and big data are transforming the credit market in Vietnam. Lenders ... more Artificial intelligence (AI) and big data are transforming the credit market in Vietnam. Lenders increasingly use 'algorithmic credit scoring' to assess borrowers' creditworthiness or likelihood and willingness to repay loan. This technology gleans non-traditional data from smartphones and analyses them through machine learning algorithms. Algorithmic credit scoring promises greater efficiency, accuracy, cost-effectiveness, and speed in predicting risk compared to traditional credit scoring systems that are based on economic data and human discretion. These technological gains are expected to foster financial inclusion, enter untapped credit markets, and deliver credit to 'at-risk' and financially excluded borrowers. However, this technology also raises public concerns about opacity, unfair discrimination, and threats to individual privacy and autonomy. In Vietnam, the lending industry deploys this technology at scale but in legal limbo. Regulation is vital to delivering big data and AI promises in the financial services market while ensuring fairness and public interest.

Asian Journal of Law and Society, p. 1–32, 2023

Réseaux 238-9, p. 153-179, 2023

Journal of Vietnamese Studies, 2021

Geoforum, 2020

The Sociological Review, 2020

Culture, Health & Sexuality, 2020

American Anthropologist, 2018

Time & Society, 2019

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 2019

Journal of Vietnamese Studies, 2012

Journal of Southeast Asian Economies, 2014

Autrepart, 2013

AAT Research Report, 2020

Economics Working Paper, 2021

Perspective, 2021

Vietnam’s digital subprime lending industry is rapidly growing amidst public concern for reckless... more Vietnam’s digital subprime lending industry is rapidly growing amidst public concern for reckless lending and aggressive and unregulated debt collection practices.

• Disgruntled, harassed and vengeful digital borrowers express their discontent about predatory lending apps on social media platforms including Facebook groups.

• These Facebook groups function as:

• forums where members coalesce for guidance on navigating the expanding and labyrinthic landscape of lending apps;

• milieus of expression and comfort for over-indebted, isolated and harassed members; and

• spaces where members express their desire to challenge and take revenge against digital lenders and debt collectors that victimise them.

ISEAS Perspective, 2021

• About 70 percent of Vietnamese citizens are un(der)banked and have limited or no access to fina... more • About 70 percent of Vietnamese citizens are un(der)banked and have limited or no access to financial services.

• Their lack of credit histories severely limits their access to credit markets as lenders cannot assess their creditworthiness.

• Fintech startups provide digital credit scoring services to lenders in Vietnam to assess credit risk of the un(der)banked. Risk assessment is based on alternative data collected from users’ smartphones and processed through machine learning algorithms.

• Digital credit scoring provides more consistent, efficient, accurate and timely credit scores than traditional scoring based on economic data, especially credit repayment history.

• Digital credit scoring though raises concerns about unfair discrimination against the underbanked in credit access, the loss of privacy and ability to make choices and personal data protection.

• This technology is deployed in Vietnam in a legal vacuum. A legal framework is proposed that aims to balance normative trade-offs between innovation and public protection.

Open Democracy / Beyond Trafficking and Slavery, 2019

Debt and traﬃcking were used to explain why 39 Vietnamese migrants were found dead in a lorry in ... more Debt and traﬃcking were used to explain why 39 Vietnamese migrants were found dead in a lorry in Essex, but whom did the migrants owe?

ISEAS Perspective 87, 2019

Moneylending is widespread in Vietnam. Popularly labelled 'black credit', it involves unlicensed ... more Moneylending is widespread in Vietnam. Popularly labelled 'black credit', it involves unlicensed operations, high interest rates and strong-arm recovery methods. • Black credit is currently of serious concern in Vietnam. This is reflected in extensive daily media coverage and the numerous efforts made by the government and financial community to fight it. • Black credit is often conflated with other more socially beneficial forms of informal credit • The main solution envisioned to neutralize black credit, and more broadly informal credit, is by expanding formal credit. • Current debates about black credit and its magic solution, credit liberalisation, do not reflect thoroughly enough on the pros and cons of formal and informal credit.

There have been recent claims that Rohingya women and children are at risk of being trafficked fo... more There have been recent claims that Rohingya women and children are at risk of being trafficked for labour and sexual exploitation during their flight and from refugee camps in Bangladesh.
 This has had an impact on public opinion and international policy. The latest U.S. State Department’s Trafficking in Persons report downgraded Myanmar to Tier 3 for failing to protect Rohingya refugees from being trafficked for sexual exploitation. Bangladesh was kept in the Tier 2 Watch, partly for the trafficking of Rohingya women from the refugee camps for sexual purposes.
 However, on examining 34 media reports and documents, besides nine stories presented by reporters, no data for the scope of trafficking and its operations were provided.
 Moreover, the narrative is simplistic in its classification of actors as “savages”, “victims” and “saviours” and its framing of the issue as one of good against evil.
 Such narratives magnify the emotional content of their subject, and should not be used in place of reliable data, for designing interventions, or for making policy.

The Straits Times, Monday, April 18 2011, p. 22

Bangkok Post, May 6, 2011

Taipei Times, Sat April 30, 2011, p.8

Carnets du Vietnam, Juillet 2011