Illicit business?
According to Huong, a lot of Viet Kieu want to transfer money to Vietnam to make bank deposits or lend to relatives for doing business. Currently, they are transferring money to their relatives under the mode of overseas remittance. Previously, ‘overseas remittance’ referred to the small sums of money sent by Viet Kieu to their relatives in Vietnam to help improve their relatives’ lives. However, the situation is quite different now: many remitted sums of money are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, as said above, money can be remitted to Vietnam, but cannot be transferred back abroad under legal channels. As a result, Viet Kieu have to rely on unofficial channels of transferring money, and if a dispute arises, Viet Kieu are always the losers.
